Without Uzumaki
by Beansmoker
Summary: The new and improved rewrite of the story with the same title. A huge amount of pressure from Konoha's villagers forces the Hokage to do the unthinkable. Naruto is sentenced to exile and is raised in Kirigakure, without any knowledge of where he was born.
1. Chapter 1: Transferred Away

Disclaimer: The only Naruto I own has already been digested.

After much deliberation, I have decided that this story is in desperate need of a rewrite. If you haven't figured it out from my profile name, I smoke beans... a lot. Because of this, I have a tendency to screw up my stories because whenever I am on the 'beans', I can't cycle through all of the ideas flowing through my head. I had actually meant to write _two _stories, and I was going to publish the other one, but I got a little, uh, on second thought, I'd rather not say exactly what I did, and mixed them together, a little bit, sort of. My friend, shadowtrayster, pressured me to try again, without smoking beans this time. I respect his judgment and extreme writing skills, so I'll give it a shot, but don't be surprised if I screw this up again.

Beansmoker: (Eyes beans next to computer nervously while sweating profusely) Without any further adieu, _(I must not smoke the beans, I must not smoke the beans) _I present my freshly edited, (I wonder if anyone will notice what I changed), fresh, brand camel-spanking new, first chapter.

Without Uzumaki Ch 1:

'Why Yondaime, why? Why did you sacrifice yourself without hesitation? Didn't you know that I was more willing to put my life on the line for this village than you? I would have gladly used that jutsu to defeat the Kyuubi. You shouldn't have died. It should have been me.' Sarutobi was sitting at his brand new desk in the Hokage Tower, shedding his share of tears for the former Hokage, who more than deserved them. The Yondaime's desk had been removed the day before, only three days after he had died. The villagers were desperate to return the village to the way it was. So desperate that they had replaced the man who had saved them all with the man who had wished he had died instead. In his mind, Sarutobi believed that he was no longer fit for the job. That's why the headdress that he had been so proud to call his own back when he was Hokage, sat on the desk in front of him unused. He no longer had any desire to put it on. 'It still belongs to the Yondaime.' Sarutobi thought. 'I shouldn't wear it until his funeral.'

A high-pitched noise broke the Third Hokage from his thoughts. The old man, who had passed his prime years ago, looked to his right where several baskets had been laid in a row. In each one was a baby, children that were orphaned by the Kyuubi attack, and needed a place to stay. Sarutobi volunteered to watch them himself, since all of the orphanages were gone, stomped into dust by the Nine-Tailed Fox. One of the orphans in particular was special. One with blond hair and blue eyes, a rarity in fire country. He also happened to be the one that was crying.

Sarutobi took a milk-bottle out of his desk, and brought it to the baby boy. As he fed the child milk, he carefully examined the seal on his stomach. It was clearly visible, even though three days had passed since the Kyuubi attack. 'Until that seal disappears, I will have to keep Naruto here. I can't let anyone discover what is sealed inside of him. If that happens, all that remains of the Yondaime's legacy will be lost.' He picked Naruto up and carried him to his desk, where he pulled a shirt onto him. 'This should at least keep prying eyes from getting an unfortunate glimpse of the seal. All that is left is to wait until it disappears entirely. Then Naruto will be safe.' The Hokage set Naruto back into his crib, just as he heard a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" He asked loudly. "I am busy in here! I have much paperwork to handle, and no time for interruptions!" The Hokage ended the statement with an audible 'humph!'.

"I am sorry Hokage-sama. I tried to tell them that you wouldn't want to be disturbed, but they won't listen." The Hokage recognized this as the voice of his personal assistant. He had placed her in charge of keeping unwanted visitors out, so he could wait for the seal to disappear. When she talked again, her voice was much quieter, almost a whisper. "They have _weapons_, Hokage-sama. I think that they mean business. All of them are waiting outside the tower."

The Hokage snatched the hat off of his desk. 'This might be serious.' He thought. He walked over to the window in his office, placing the cap on his head. 'I guess this means that I am officially the Hokage now. I must not show any weakness in front of these youngsters. Time to show them that the village is under my control.' The Hokage threw the door open. "Where are they, Ai?" He said, expecting to see his assistant on the other side. To his horror, she was much further away, being held in an arm lock by a single person who was part of a crowd that looked like it was made up of every male in the village that wasn't a ninja, and even a few females. "What's going on…" The Hokage started, before he felt himself being grabbed by the shirt and shoved into the door to his office. Instinctively, his hand shot for his kunai holster, but just before he drew it in order to kill his assailant, he realized that whoever it was was talking to him.

"Move out of the way! I've come here to put an end to what the Yondaime started!" The Hokage looked down at the person who was still holding his shirt and realized that it was none other than Hyuuga Hiashi.

"What are you trying to do, Hiashi?" The Hokage asked. "Is there a reason that you are pointing a blade at me?"

The Hyuuga looked the Hokage right in the eyes, his own eyes already in byuukugan mode, veins popping out all over the Hyuuga's face. "You know what this is about, Hokage-_sama_! I know that you are protecting the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox!" Hiashi spit out the –sama like a curse-word.

The Hokage couldn't stop sweat from pouring out of his face, but it only made him look guilty of the crime that the Hyuuga just accused him of. 'Shit! He knows.' The Hokage decided to buy himself time to find a way out of this situation. "What do you mean? The Demon-Fox is dead, how can I be hiding him?"

"You think that you can pull the wool over all of our eyes, don't you Hokage-_sama_? Of course I know what happened." Hiashi put down the Hokage so that he could point at his eyes. "These eyes see everything that happens in this village. I know that the Yondaime failed! I know that he couldn't find a way to destroy the Kyuubi. I also know that the Shiki Fuujin that killed him and supposedly defeated the Kyuubi, was actually meant to seal it in a human so that it would finally be vulnerable. Finally, I know that for some reason that you have decided not to announce, you are harboring the child inside of your office as we speak. You have been checking on that seal of his every day since the attack, so that makes me think that you are trying to find a way to hide the fact that that child is a monster!" Hiashi pointed his knife at the Hokage. "Move out of the way so that I can finish the Kyuubi off. If you do, I will be willing to pretend that you weren't protecting it."

The Hokage shook his head slowly, "I'm sorry but I can't do that."

Suddenly the crowd grew violent, shaking the pitchforks and torches they brought with them in the air. "Treason!" one member of the group shouted. "Our own Hokage has betrayed us!" Another one cried. The shouts of "Treason" and "Betrayal" continued to grow louder as the crowd grew so violent that they started to lay waste to everything breakable within their reach.

"SILENCE!" The Hokage screamed. "DESPITE WHAT YOU MAY THINK, I AM STILL THE HOKAGE! I WILL HAVE ORDER IN MY VILLAGE!" The crowd actually quieted down, when the sky suddenly grew cloudy and lightening bolts shot down from the sky in response from all the chakra that the Kage was releasing. "Now, you didn't let me finish. I can not allow any harm to come to Naruto Uzumaki. Contrary to what you all believe, attacking and killing that boy will not end the Kyuubi's reign of terror. According to the Yondaime himself, killing Uzumaki will most likely…" The Hokage pulled out his pipe and lit it. He took a few puffs, leaving his sentence unfinished.

"What? What will killing him do?" Hiashi asked.

"Why, it would release the Kyuubi into this village once more." The Hokage said while continuing to puff his pipe.

You could hear a pin drop through the complete silence that started when the crowd realized what they had almost done.

The Hokage started to turn around to return to his office. He mentally sighed, 'Damn, that was really close. Good thing I went to acting school like the Yondaime suggested, or I would have never been able to sell a blatant lie like that one.' Right before he finished stepping through his doorway, the Kage felt a hand on his shoulder. He slowly turned to see Hiashi, his byuukugan still active. 'Shit! I forgot that the Hyuuga were natural lie detectors!'

"I see your point, Hokage-sama. Due to the nature of sealing techniques, it is possible that the Kyuubi could be released if its container is destroyed."

The Hokage tried not to let the surprise show on his face. 'He actually believed me! Maybe the Hyuuga are all hype after all.' Outside of his head, the Hokage was still puffing his pipe calmly.

"But," Hiashi continued. "Konoha still has no desire to harbor a Demon within its walls."

Members of the crowd had a mixed reaction to this statement. Some remained silent, still processing what would have happened if they had killed Naruto and released the Kyuubi. Others had new life breathed in them when they heard the man that organized the riot speak again. These members of the crowd grew rowdy again. "That's right! We don't want a goddamn demon living among us!"

Hokage tried to stay calm, using the pipe more like a stress ball than a smoking utensil, pouring all of the tension he was feeling into his smoke rings. "What are you suggesting now, Hiashi?" he said in his calmest voice.

"Why, exile of course! He can be some other village's problem."

'Shit, hadn't been expecting that one.' The Hokage thought. "That isn't going to work either! Do you think that there is a village that would be willing to accept Naruto at a time like this? Tsuchikagure, Sunahakagure, and even the Hidden Village in the Clouds all have their own demon problems to deal with. They would never willingly accept another demon into their villages, and if we sent Naruto to them without revealing what he was, that would start a war! Is that what you want, Hiashi? Another great war!"

Hiashi smiled. "I think that you forgot a village, Hokage-sama."

The Hokage's concentration finally broke, he put his pipe out and stuck it back in his pocket. "There is no way that I'm sending Naruto to Blood Mist Village. They'll rip him apart there!"

"Oh?" The Hiashi said. He seemed to be enjoying breaking the Hokage's will. "You almost sound worried about what happens to that Demon-brat? Are you sure that you are really interested in the safety of this village? Or do you secretly have an agenda that involves that Kyuubi-brat? Don't tell me that you are planning to benefit from the Yondaime's death."

The Hokage glanced out of the corner of his eye at the crowd of people outside his office. He couldn't spot a single person who's arms weren't crossed, with their teeth pulled back in a snarl. Even his own assistant. They looked like a pack of violent hounds, and if the Hokage didn't give into their request, they would definitely riot. Hokage didn't have the manpower to stop something like that, especially with seventy-percent of his ninja in the hospital due to the Kyuubi attack. He looked up at the night sky, as a rain drop fell from the heavens and touched his nose. "Very well, Hiashi. You win." The Hokage said, allowing the confidence he had been displaying up until now to dissipate for the first time.

"Oh, come off it, Hokage-sama." Hiashi said. "I don't win, we all win!"

The crowd cheered madly at the second part to this statement.

"So, how will we go about delivering the child to the Hidden Village in the Mist?" Hiashi said happily.

The Hokage whistled and two ninja suddenly appeared to his right and left. They were none other than Kakashi, the current ANBU-captain, and Kurenai, the only other available ninja at the moment. The Hokage turned around and faced the two ninja he had just called. "Go pack, I am assigning you a mission. Bring enough clothes to last you for a week, and enough food to last the two of you and one other for that much time."

"One other, Hokage-sama?" Kurenai asked.

"You will be delivering a baby to Kirikagure. I will be sending a request to the Mizukage to transfer the boy into his village in as little as fifteen minutes by carrier pigeon. He should get the message in two days, so by the time you get there everything should already be set up. Now start packing, and return here once you are done."

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" both ninja said before beginning a teleportation jutsu to bring them to their homes. Right before Kakashi left, the Hokage grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Wait for one moment Kakashi, there is something else I want to send with you." The Hokage said.

Kakashi stayed put as the Hokage went back into his office. Minutes later the Hokage returned, supporting a large blade in his hands. It was completely devoid of any special decorations or markings, but Kakashi could feel great strength emanating from inside the sword. It was also quite large, several times bigger than the type of sword that most ninja preferred, but not so much so that it couldn't be swung with just one hand if you were very strong. In other words, larger than a ninjato, a small sword often wielded by assassins, but smaller than a Zanbutou, the large horseslayer that samurai used against horsemen.

"What's that, Hokage-sama?" Kakashi asked respectively.

"This is one of the seven swords of the Mist. It was one of the spoils that Konoha received for defeating Kiri in the Great War that proceeded the peace that we have now. I want to send it back with Naruto. It's his sword now, I hope he makes good use of it." The Hokage said. He handed Kakashi the sword. "Make sure that while you're packing, you figure out how you're going to carry this. It's a bit heavier than it looks."

Kakashi tied the sword and sheath to his back, before teleporting away.

The Hokage gave Hiashi one final glance before walking back into his office. He stopped briefly before closing the door, "I hope you're happy now, Hiashi."

Hiashi smiled. "Very."

… The next day…

Kakashi and Kurenai both departed from the village, carrying a baby and one of the seven swords of the Mist. Neither ninja understood exactly what was going on, but they would see this mission through no matter confused the things that they were delivering made them. They didn't waste any time with idle chit-chat, since the words "move with utmost haste", and "don't let anything distract you from your primary objective", were underlined several times in the mission scrolls they had been given.

Naturally, Kurenai had the baby, which she had placed in a special baby harness that was strapped to her stomach. It allowed her to feed Naruto and change his diaper while running at full sprint.

Kakashi was carrying the sword, which wasn't that heavy once you got used to the weight. This was obviously an easier job than changing a baby's diaper at thirty miles an hour.

The two ninja opted to move towards their target on foot until they reached the water. Then they waited for a special passageway to open that only Kirikagure's allies could use. It led underground, allowing a well-trained ninja to travel to Mist Village underground instead of waiting for a boat to come and take them there. For ninja that were chuunin and up, sprinting was faster than using a boat.

A week later, and both ninja arrived at their destination. They had made it just in time. Kakashi whipped out the scroll that outlined their mission one last time. "Alright, we are supposed to deliver the child and sword to the Mizukage, or the person that he arranges to meet with us and take them. After that is done, we can leave." Kakashi started to roll the scroll back up, but Kurenai stopped him.

She pointed to the bottom line of the scroll. "You missed this part. _Make sure that you gather the replacement child from the Mist-ninja._ Replacement child? The Hokage didn't mention that to us."

Kakashi just shrugged. "Well it's written in the scroll, so we have to handle that as well." He took the scroll back from Kurenai and rolled it back up. "Let's go."

Kurenai and Kakashi took their first steps into the Hidden Village of the Mist, but found that it was surprisingly quiet and still within the village's walls. Kakashi scanned the area but could find no signs of life anywhere. It wasn't until he turned around that he realized why. 'I forgot that they must have been waiting on us to arrive since they received the message from the Hokage.'

An entire crowd of mist-ninja had appeared behind Kakashi and Kurenai, barring them from leaving the village. Kakashi willed himself to keep his hand from shooting to his kunai holster. He knew that if he showed any signs of hostility, the mist-ninja would cut him down.

One of the ninja separated himself from the crowd of mist-ninja, stepping away from the group and stopping only a few feet away from Kakashi and Kurenai. "Are the two of you the ninja the Hokage sent? The ones who are delivering Kirikagure a brand-new tool of war?" His face was wrapped in tape, only leaving his eyes and hair visible. He looked somewhat like a mummy, and judging from the position of his cheekbones, he was smiling.

Kurenai stepped forward, Naruto still strapped to her chest. "Hai!" she yelled while saluting the ninja in front of her. "My name is Kurenai, and that's Kakashi. We are here to see that this child, Uzumaki Naruto, is successfully transferred from Konoha to Kiri." She removed Naruto from the harness and held him so that the ninja could get a closer look at his village's new ninja.

"So that's the Kyuubi's container." The mist-nin said. "Well, I am the captain of Kirikagure's ANBU, Momoichi Zabuza. The Mizukage has sent me here to accept this child and the sixth sword of the Mist in his stead, in addition to…" Zabuza snapped his fingers.

This caused one of the other mist-ninja to step forward, carrying what appeared to be two toddlers in his arms.

"Seeing that Konoha receives this child in return for Naruto."

"Very well." Kakashi said. "Let's trade then."

Zabuza took Naruto, and a second mist-ninja took Naruto's sword.

Kakashi was left empty-handed after giving up Naruto's sword. Kurenai was forced to take Naruto's replacement, but she let out a squeal when she discovered that this new child had two heads, and one of them brushed against her face. "What is this thing?" she squealed. "I mean," she took several short breaths. "Why does he have two heads?"

Zabuza shrugged. "We don't know. We found him digging around in a dumpster like a raccoon. We just call him Sakon, and we call his extra head Ukon. From what we've discovered so far about him, we've determined that the extra head his part of an ancient bloodline. We assure you that he will become extremely powerful if you make sure to train him in the use of his _extra_ body."

Kurenai looked at the child she was holding in her arms very closely. "Extra body?"

Zabuza bowed. "You'll see in a few years." He motioned towards the ninja behind him, and they formed a path for Kurenai and Kakashi to leave through. "If you don't have anything else to give Kirikagure, I think that our business here is concluded."

Kakashi bowed as well. "See you later then." Kakashi started walking. "Come on, Kurenai."

The pair from Konoha left Kirikagure, and reentered the tunnel that they came to Water Country through.

Kurenai turned to Kakashi, still carrying Sakon and Ukon in her arms, since she couldn't fit him in the baby harness, with the extra head in the way and all. "Do you think that Naruto will be alright in that village?"

Kakashi shook his head. "I doubt it, but you shouldn't worry. He's survived worse already."

Kurenai didn't understand what Kakashi meant, but she kept on walking.

So began Naruto's life as one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, and so ended his life as a Konoha ninja.

* * *

Whew! I really didn't think that I'd be able to get through that chapter without smoking... Give me a second. Pulls out lighter (_Time to reward myself. Cue Popeye Music.)_

_Yeah. These beans always hit the right spot. What the hell is this shit on my computer? Better delete this and get back to smoking. I'll just hit this button right here. Hmm. Why does the delete button have "submit" written on it? Whatever. I'll just hit it anyway._


	2. Chapter 2: Cause and Effect

Disclaimer: The only Naruto I own has already been digested. (Get it? 'Cuz Naruto is the name of a food item on the Japanese Menu.)

Alright, I thought that it would be a bit of an asshole move to delete four chapters of my fic without at least submitting a new one. This is the direction that I was actually planning on going with my story, but those beans screwed with my head. They told me, "It's your story. Just write the first thing that comes to mind." That was when I came up with that "alternate dimension", crap. That, and the fact that the devil had appeared before me using the Spanish channel on my t.v. set a few weeks before, causing me to consider if there was another dimension in channel fourteen. However, that is a story that I will not go into great detail about over the internet. Anyways, on with the fic.

Recap: Naruto is a mist-nin now because he was literally evicted from his village as a child. To make up for this, he has inherited one of the seven swords of the Mist, which was, apparently, left with Konoha as a symbol of the peace between Kirigakure and Konoha, or something. (I came up with that idea while I was jacked up, so I have no idea where I was going with it. Still, I don't feel like writing a more detailed backstory than that.) Mist Village sent another child who they had come across, Sakon, to Konoha in exchange for the return of their sword and Naruto.

Without Uzumaki, Ch.2:

Zabuza lifted up the blond-haired child that he held in his arms, and observed it more closely.'It looks scrawny, and judging by how he looks now, I doubt that this kid will even reach six feet as an adult.This kid is not threatening in any way, but Konoha was so frightened by the demon inside of him that they gave him away.'

Naruto giggled as he peered directly into Zabuza's eyes.

A grin was barely visible through the wrappings on theMist-nin's face. 'Konoha will regret letting something this powerful go. I will be certain to use the powers of this "demon" to my own advantage.'

A second ANBU approached from behind Zabuza. "Momoichi-sama, we must bring this child to the Mizukage. He wants to determine how the power of this demon can best be exploited."

Zabuza lowered Naruto to his side. "Very well. Let's deliver this child then."

Zabuza and his ANBU entourage marched through the village towards their Kage's tower. While they walked, Zabuza observed the village. To an outsider, Kirigakure would seem like a pitiful excuse for a home. It lacked the tall buildings and beautiful weather that someone from Konoha would be used to. Instead, the people lived in shabby, rundown shacks and it was always raining. Even now, Zabuza was forced to use an adjacent ninja's umbrella to shield Naruto from the downpour that had just started. Naruto began to cry, as a bolt of lightning flashed through the sky.

'I wonder how long this kid will stay pitiful and weak in a village like this.' Zabuza turned to the ninja to his right, who just happened to be female. He handed Naruto to her. "Shut him up."

The woman's bodily expression showed that she was angry that she was singled out, instead of, say, one of the male ninja,but she still complied with Zabuza's order. She cooed gently to the baby, and that calmed him down a little.

Minutes later, the group arrived at the Mizukage's office. All but Zabuza and the female ANBU left, returning to their duties around the village.

Zabuza, and the ninja that was now holding Naruto, stepped into the Kage's office, which was set up more or less like the throne room that an emperor would have. There was even a long, red carpet leading to the chair where the Mizukage was sitting. The legendary "Water Shadow" was resting both of his arms on his armrests, his hat covering the upper half of his face, although there was a grin on the lower half. "Hello, Zabuza-kun. I see that you took your time bringing the Monster Fox here."

"Monster Fox?" Zabuza said, as if the nickname surprised him.

The Mizukage stood up from his seat, and shuffled over to where Zabuza was. It was awe-inspiring, how when he walked it seemed as if his feet weren't even touching the ground. "Yes." He made his way right over to Naruto. He tickled the baby's chin, generating a few giggles from him. "A monster like this needs a nickname. I've been moving back and forth between calling him Monster Fox or the Demon of the Mist. Too bad that you've already taken one of those two names." He took the baby from the female-nin's arms and threw him up and down. "I guess that Monster Fox will have to do," The Mizukage suddenly turned his gaze onto Zabuza. His eyes formed a deep scowl. "At least until you die, Zabuza-kun."

Zabuza resisted the urge to shudder. "Whatever. Just tell me why you asked for me to go and get the child specifically. This is the type of assignment that is normally reserved for chuunin."

A creepy smirk enveloped the Mizukage's face. "Isn't it obvious? I just wanted you to be the first Mist-ninja that the boy would see. After all, you will be the one in charge of training him."

Zabuza simply smiled, an action that was made apparent because his cheekbones became visible through his wrappings. 'Just as I figured.' he thought."Is that all you want, Mizukage-sama? I thought that you would have bigger plans than this for the Kyuubi's container."

"Sorry, but I couldn't think of anything on such short notice. That's why I have brilliant ninja like you around, though. Keep the kid with you, never let him out of your sight. I expect great things from this kid, or you could say that I have great expections for the Kyuubi in him. It _was _strong enough to bring Konoha to its knees after all." The Mizukage motioned for Zabuza to come closer and began to hand Naruto off to him. Just as Zabuza reached to take Naruto from him, the Kage jerked the boy away. He whispered to Zabuza quietly, so that only he could hear what he said next. "Remember Zabuza, the Monster Fox is _my _weapon. If you abuse my trust in you by using this boy to further your own goals, I will do to you what I've been planning on doing for a long time, and grind you into a bloody pulp." He finished handing Zabuza the boy, and his expression once again assumed a cheerful tone. As Zabuza walked away from the throne, toting Naruto in his arms, he heard the Mizukage's voice, "Don't forget to teach Naruto how to use that sword of his, Zabuza-kun!"

Zabuza bowed as he exited the throne room, and dismissed the female ANBU so she could return home. He took Naruto to his home, which happened to be the ANBU barracks just outside of the Kage's tower. Fortunately, an ANBU captain like Zabuza received a special office, the size of an apartment building. He had already arranged for his team to set up a room for Naruto. As he placed the child in his crib he thought to himself, 'Raising this kid from infancy will be tough, but the pay off will be more than worth it. The Mizukage is foolish, entrusting something this powerful in my care. With the Kyuubi as one of my subordinates, I will surely destroy that man.'

Zabuza imagined the Mizukage bloody corpse at his feet as he laid his sword beside his own bed. He fell asleep dreaming about his victory over his most hated enemy.

* * *

Next chapter, will be a four year jump, and will most likely be out tomorrow. Review and tell me if you like the fact that my fics in chronological order now. 

Boy, it's hard writing while off the beans. I'll try tostay off them, though... Give me a second. (Cue Popeye Music)

_Man, I love a good pairing. You know what else? I love Sakura, and, uh, Hinata, Temari, Tayuya, Kin... I hate sex changes, though. Last time I made Haku female, but then I realized, "Dude, Haku's a dude, dude. Having a female version of him and Naruto paired up is just a little too close to yaoi for me. This time I'm not making any compromises, dude. Haku's going to stay a dude, so pick a different pairing, or come up with an inventive way for Haku to become female during the actual story that is, somehow, not gay in any way. If you can't, then don't suggest that pairing in particular. Any other combo is still fair game for me, though._


	3. Chapter 3: Growing Pains

Disclaimer: The only Naruto I own are some fish-cakes I bought at Sakura's.

I can't believe it! I'm actually experiencing withdrawal symptoms from beans! My hands shake occasionally, I have trouble concentrating while I'm writing. However, my will has not been broken, yet. I will continue to remain bean-free, so that I can keep writing this fic with a clear mind.

Recap Times 2: The Mizukage himself has commanded Zabuza, of all people, to instruct Naruto in the way of the ninja, and in the use of his sword.

Five years have passed since Naruto was first born, and he was sent to the Hidden Village of the Mist. Naruto was never told about the village that he originally came from, and believes in his heart that he was born in the Mist, and is somehow related to Zabuza. Zabuza himself hasn't given Naruto any details, choosing only to talk to the boy when he was barking out orders, or training him...

"Again! This time, hit the target!"

Naruto's hands were shaking, the palms of them covered in callouses from handling weapons. At the moment, he was holding kunai in each hand. He threw one of them at a target that was set up ten meters away on a tree. The kunai fell short, and Naruto fell to the ground.

Zabuza grunted. "Pitiful. You should be able to last much longer than this. Is this how well you will perform when you actually face this man?" Zabuza was referring to the target itself, which looked suspiciously like the Mizukage.

Naruto stood to his feet, and threw another kunai at the target. It hit it directly in the forehead.

Zabuza walked up to Naruto and patted him on the head. "Good Job. Finish throwing the last four and then you can take a break."

"Oy, Zabuza!"

Zabuza turned around, and could see the Mizukage approaching from the distance. He mentally cursed to himself. 'What does this guy want?'

"I need to talk to you." He approached the training grounds, gliding over the moss that covered the grass like a phantom. He eyed Naruto briefly, as the boy threw his last kunai at the target. It lodged itself into the torso, leaving the Mizukage's image so covered in metal that only the face was visible, minus the forehead and left eye. "Interesting choice for a training target, Zabuza-kun." He sneered as he said this.

"What do you want?" Zabuza asked harshly. "Can't you see that we're training?"

"I want you to cut Naruto-kun's training short for today. I have a mission for you."

Naruto approached Zabuza after gathering his kunai and placing them in the bucket where he got them from. "Who's this, Zabuza-sensei? Why's he here?"

Zabuza turned to his charge, a grin present on his face. "I'm surprised that you don't recognize him. You've been hurling kunai at him for over two hours."

Recognition became visible on Naruto's face. "Oh! You're that guy that I have to defeat in order to earn Zabuza-sensei's respect!" Naruto repeated what Zabuza told him constantly.

The Mizukage smiled. "Very funny, Zabuza-kun. I am actually the Mizukage, Naruto, the strongest ninja in all of Water Country." The Kage approached closer and closer to Naruto, his face slowly morphing from a grin to a scowl. "I earned my title by fighting in countless battles and killing hundreds of ninja who thought too highly of themselves. I even killed the previous Mizukage when he resisted my appointment."

The Kage's gaze deepened as he brought his face even closer to Naruto's. His eyes took on a slight reddish tone. "I could never be defeated by anyone who lives in this village," The veins in the Kage's eyes were clearly visible to Naruto at this point.", Especially not you." Almost instantaneously, the scowl disappeared from the Kage's face, and the smile he was wearing before returned. "Keep training though, I could definitely use someone like you in my personal guard."

Naruto walked away from the Mizukage once their exchange ended. 'What a creepy guy.'

The Mizukage began to converse with Zabuza next:

"Do you remember last year, when the Daimyo ordered us to destroy all of the families that posessed advanced bloodlines, Zabuza?"

Zabuza recalled the mission that the Kage was referring to in great detail. "Yes, over ten ninja clans were annhilated by the ANBU. I was in charge of that operation."

"Well, Zabuza-kun, it seems like you missed one." The way that the Mizukage said it made this statement seem like a taunt.

"Huh? There's no way I could have-"

The Kage cut him off. "A man from a village just east of Kirigakure just claimed yesterday that his wife carried an advanced bloodline and that she managed to pass her bloodline on to their son."

"Two Mist-nin with advanced bloodlines still live? Where are they now? I'll take care of them." Zabuza strapped his kunai on.

"That will not be necessary. The man that reported this information to us also said that he managed to kill his wife. Even with her bloodline, she wasn't much of a fighter. The son managed to escape, but he hasn't had any ninja training, either."

"If there's no problem, then what is this mission you brought up?"

The Mizukage shrugged. "The boy's name is Haku. He's hanging out at the bridge at the east of this village. I just want you to go talk to him. You know, cheer him up since his mom just died."

"You don't want me to kill him?"

The Mizukage shook his head and then turned around. He called to Zabuza over his shoulder. "Leave Naruto here with me. I've got something to show him."

Zabuza walked off in the other direction. "Very well."

_Uumpa Doompa Uumpa Doompa Uumpa (Like my breaks?) Uumpa Doompa Uumpa (I like it better than a row of x's) Uumpa Doompa_

The Mizukage took Naruto a short ways away from the training grounds to a lake. It was drizzling lightly today, a refreshing change from the snow that Kirigakure normally had. Then again, it was summer.

Naruto was still tired from all the training he had been doing. He didn't take nicely to having to walk around when he could be resting. "Why can't you show me whatever you want to show me where we were before?"

"Just be quiet. You should be happy that I am taking the time to show you this." The Mizukage stepped out to the edge of the water, and pointed his palm toward the lake. He kept his back straight as he did this, and kept his left arm at his side.

"What are you doing?"

"Once you see this, you'll know why I can never be defeated by you." The Kage grunted, and a large amount of energy was suddenly released from his body.

Naruto, who did not yet know what chakra was, could only feel that the air around him had become extremely thick.

The Kage formed a single seal, the dragon, and enormous power was released from his body.

Naruto could only watch, with his mouth agape, as the entire lake rose into the air and began to rotate around rapidly, forming a cyclone.

The Mizukage turned towards Naruto, the hurricane behind him rotating violently. "Take a close look, Naruto-kun." he bellowed. "You better remember this the next time that you consider fighting me. If we do battle," he allowed the cyclone to die down, and the water fell back into the lake, sending a huge wave up into the air and then back down again. The Mizukage lowered his voice to a quiet whisper. "You will find that I know techniques several times more powerful than this."

Once again, Naruto walked away from the Mizukage mumbling to himself. 'This guy is _really_ creepy.'

...Minutes later...

Naruto returned to the training grounds, and walked over to a stump to sit down. He started to doze off, but he heard a voice exclaim, "Is that the other boy that you were talking about, Zabuza-san?"

Naruto looked up and saw what could be a very effeminate looking boy, or a girl dressed suspiciously like a boy, walking beside Zabuza. The girlish-boy thing, looked to be about his age. "Zabuza-sensei, who is this?" Naruto asked.

"His name's Haku."

* * *

Next Time, there will be more Haku, the man-girl-boy-thing that you can't help but love, or completely avoid if you're a dude and want to avoid any challenge to your sexuality. Few guys want to be around a chick that hot, if they know that it is actually a guy. 

By the way, Thanks for the reviews and keep them coming. I need them to fight crime. Don't ask how, just keep writing me more reviews and you'll see.

Seacrest... I mean, Beansmoker out!


	4. Chapter 4: Plan, What Plan?

Disclaimer: Bribes, Threats, hilarious Jokes, there's nothing I could do to convince Kishimoto to give Naruto to me. Guess I'll never own it.

A.N. Apparently, the website didn't move my story up when I switched the special note in chapter six with chapter three, an actual chapter. It still says my last update was on 6/11, when I actually updated on 6/13. Go back and read chapter three before moving on to this one.

And now, for everyone who actually read my third chapter, I present my latest, bean-free entry.

Without Uzumaki Ch. 4:

Three years have passed since Haku joined up with Naruto and Zabuza. Recently, Naruto has decided to start a diary to profile how he feels about his "family's" newest addition:

_Dear Diary,_

_When Haku first joined up with Me and Zabuza, I was pretty excited. After all,I figured that I could use a sparring partner. Someone who I could train together with and who could make me stronger for when the time came to face my greatest challenge, the Mizukage. However, it became increasingly obvious to me only a week after I met him, that Haku wanted something different entirely._

_It all started when I asked Haku to spar with me, and he politely turned downmy request, only to somehow convince Zabuza to fight with him three minutes later.I just trained on my own while Haku demonstrated how powerful his bloodline was to his new sensei._

_In an entirely unrelated story, Haku became Zabuza's new favorite the next week when he demonstrated that he could perform jutsus with just one hand. (I mean, shit! Even the goddamn Mizukage can't do that!)_

_Nowadays, I just avoid the both of them entirely. Haku's hero worship of Zabuza is bordering on creepy, and I think that the fact that he always wears a kimono and sometimes even makeup when he and Zabuza are going to do something together is wrong. _

_Well, that's all I'm going to write today._

The diary entry ends here; after all writing was never Naruto's forte.

Naruto closed his diary and stepped over to his closet, checking his reflection on the way. He was still in his beige pajamas so he opened up the closet doors and pulled out his ninja outfit. He threw his t-shirt on the bed, a light-blue shirt with gold sleeves. Naruto had never been one for stealth, so he chose bright colors for his outfit. On a side note, his shirt seemed to blend in well with water during the day time, which was great for attacks by sea.

Next, he tossed his custom-made cargo shorts next to the shirt. They had all of the bells and whistles that ninja normally kept in their pants; pockets for kunai, shuriken, smoke bombs, and explosive notes.

A few minutes later and Naruto stepped out of his room into the living room of the apartment he, Haku, and Zabuza shared, wearing the shirt, shorts, and a fairly standard pair of ninja sandals. When he opened the door, he was greeted by faces that he'd never seen before.

On the couch sat several mist-nin. Naruto didn't recognize any of them as the team of ANBU that Zabuza led. There were a few rain-nin as well, who were playing cards on the dining room table. 'Did all of these guys sneak in last night?' Naruto wondered.

Naruto walked to the center of the room and grabbed his forehead protector off of the counter. It was attached to a bandana, but Naruto tied it around his neck, cowboy style. It gave him the appearance of a bandit or criminal, but Naruto liked to give that impression to people. Just as he finished tying on his forehead protector, Naruto felt a tap on his shoulder, so he turned to his right and saw double. There were two identical twin Mist-nin wearing masks and sharing a chair. They were chained together by the wrist for some reason.

"What do you want?" Naruto said.

Naruto couldn't tell which one was speaking; they both had their faces covered. "Where's Zabuza? We want to discuss this plan of his before anyone figures out that we're gathered here."

Just when Naruto was about to reply, Zabuza and Haku stepped through the door in front of him. Zabuza nodded at Haku and the boy promptly stepped over to Naruto.

"Come on, Naruto, we have shopping to do." Haku dragged Naruto out of the room by his arm before he could protest.

Seconds later, Naruto and Haku were walking through the street, each carrying their own shopping list.

Naruto's list called for lots and lots of kunai and shurikens, explosive notes, and other ninja tools. "Why can't Zabuza shop for his own tools?" Naruto mumbled to himself.

"Don't be that way, Naruto-kun." Haku revealed an envelope. "Look, he even gave us money to buy all of those tools with." Haku raised the container so that Naruto could see it more clearly. "There's enough so we can get some ramen after we're done."

Naruto grunted. "I don't need _his_ money. I can afford ramen on my own."

"What's wrong with Zabuza-san's money? It looks the same as normal ryu to me."

Naruto changed the subject. "What's the deal with Zabuza sending us out anyway? We didn't even get to hear about this so-called plan of his."

Haku laughed. "You mean that you didn't get to hear about his plan. I already know all of the details. He told me about it last week after I finished learning how to make mist out of thin air. By the way, what jutsu did you learn last week?"

"It doesn't matter."

Haku's laughter continued. "Don't tell me that you didn't learn one..."

Naruto reached for the handle of his sword. "Shut up, before I..."

Haku cut him off. "I understand if you're a little aggravated that Zabuza doesn't trust you enough to let you in on his recent plans, but taking it out on me with those idle threats of yours is something I won't tolerate."

'Idle, huh?' Without warning, Naruto drew his sword and swung it downwards, right through the place where Haku used to be.

"That was far too slow, Naruto-kun." Haku had somehow managed to move to Naruto's side in the time it took for him to swing his sword. Haku leaned up to Naruto's ear. "Still, what would you have done if that had hit me?"

Naruto threw a backhand towards Haku, which was narrowly avoided. He then sheathed his sword. "You would know, if I had meant to hit you."

Haku finished his backflip/ dodge and jumped up into a tree. "You're a bit too hot-blooded for me to hang around with today. I think I'll gather my share of the supplies somewhere else." Haku started forming handseals with just his left hand." Since you're so insistent on not taking Zabuza's money, you can use your own to pick up everything on your list."A large mirror made completely of ice appeared behind Haku, and he melted into it.

"I hate that gay-bastard." Naruto said to himself, once Haku finished showing off. "If he wasn't Zabuza's favorite, I wouldn't have slowed down my sword." Naruto unclenched his fists and continued walking down the street to fetch the first item on his list, kunai.

It wasn't until Naruto had been walking for five minutes that he noticed something strange about Kirigakure's market that day. "Where's everyone? I haven't seen anyone but Haku since I left him back there." Naruto stopped walking and looked around. Today was surprisingly bright and sunny in a place that was used to rain. You would expect there to be tons of people to be walking around, taking advantage of this rare opportunity to view the village without having to support an umbrella.

Once Naruto stopped moving, a faint aura began to fight its way into his nose. "That smell, it's almost like bl..." Naruto cut his statement short when he heard the whizzing of several projectiles coming his way. He jumped backwards while simultaneously drawing his sword. He watched as several ivory-white round objects slammed into the wall to the left and frontof him. Naruto reached out and tugged on one, still holding his sword with his right hand. The object refused to leave the wall. 'This looks like a bone, but its shaped like a tiny senbon. Did a ninja throw these at me?'

Naruto was just about to investigate the bones further when he felt the wall begin to crumble. Naruto jumped backwards again, this time away from the wall. A forest of these "bones" burst from the wall, coming _this_ close to Naruto's forehead. Naruto hadn't even come to a complete stop when he was forced to jump backwards again, this time avoiding ivory-spikes that came out of the ground. Naruto finished his back flip and landed with his sword facing towards the bony forest in front of him.

Naruto watched as the bone closest to him, slowly began to morph, becoming more and more like a body. Naruto's first urge was to slice the thing in half, but he waited for it to finish whatever it was trying to do.

A face appeared and then separated itself from the bone along with a body. "Look what I've found all the way out here. A ninja..."

Naruto resisted the urge to shudder. "Who the hell are you?"

The man finished separating himself from the bone, then he pulled it out of the ground. It fashioned itself into a sword of sorts. "Me? I'm no one special." Suddenly, a second bone burst from the guy's left arm. He used it as a second sword, holding the bones like you would two katanas.

Naruto gripped his sword even tighter. 'They're just bones. I can cut through them with this.'

The guy just laughed. "I see what you're thinking, but you can't cut through these with a steel sword, even one as large as that. I can control the density of these bones with my chakra. They're as hard as diamonds!"

Naruto threw several shuriken at his opponent, which were easily knocked aside. While his enemy was distracted, Naruto moved to his side.

Naruto's sword came down, but the guy seemed faster than him. He blocked it with his two bones/ kitanas, and then pulled them together in scissor-like fashion, cutting Naruto's sword in half. He smirked, "So naive."

The guy finished Naruto off with a four hit combo, but just when he was about to congratulate himself, he felt sharp pain rush up his spine. He looked down and could only watch in horror as Naruto's sword came out of his chest. He looked up and saw the "Naruto" that he had just finished off burst into water. 'A water clone.'

"Now," Naruto started. He was now standing behind the guy, holding his sword so that it was submerged in his enemy's back, with only the tip poking through the other side.",You're going to tell me who the hell you are, what you did with everyone around here, and how you make your bones do that."

The guy spat out blood. "I'm disgusted. You mist-nin forget so quickly who it was who supported this country during the Great War. The Kaguya clan was Water Country's strength. You could even say that we were its skeleton."

"Kaguya clan?" Naruto repeated.

"That's right. I'm a member of the legendary clan that can use its own bones as weapons. We were invincible in our prime, but the Mizukage threw us aside as soon as the War ended. Fortunately, we always kept the vast majority of our numbers underground, so those ANBU the Kage sent only killed a small percentage of us."

Naruto nodded in understanding. "I see, your bone-molding ability is a bloodline limit, like Haku's. You were supposed to be exterminated years ago."

The Kaguya laughed. "But we weren't! And now we're back, and we're going to burn this village to the ground. Starting... with... You!"

Naruto stabbed his sword into the Kaguya, execution style, before leaping out of the way of more ivory bullets. 'Shit! More of these guys!'

Three Kaguya, two male and one female, landed in front of Naruto with bone-katana in their hands. "Good job killing one of us," The female spoke, the other two assumed a battle stance. "But now that you know we're here, we can't let you escape."

* * *

I think I'll end it right here, since I'm getting sleepy... Give me a second. (Cue Popeye Music)

_Readers, It's time to review. Don't ask why, just do it. Because 'why' is not a question that you have to ask me. I'll answer 'why' with a question of my own. Do you want me to eat your other kidney? (Don't check under your shirt, I assure you that its gone, even if I already removed the stitches.)_

_Review Without Uzumaki, or the Crazy Bean-Addict will hurt you bad._


	5. Chapter 5: Oh, Thaaat Plan

Disclaimer: The only Naruto I own tastes delicious when its sprinkled on ramen.

Now to comment on some reviews! Are you ready? Are you ready?

Meinos877: That Kimimaro "thing" is a brilliant idea (wink, wink). You know what I'm talking about.

Causeiambetta: This is the kind of review I like. I had completely spaced on giving Naruto's sword powers, so thanks for reminding me.

Hmm, guess that's about it.

Alright, chapter five baby. Now I'm finally back to the number of chapters I had before I re-did this story. Let's continue, shall we?

Without Uzumaki Ch. 5:

Bones, bones, and more bones. All around Naruto, there was nothing but bones. To his left, to his right, behind him, in front of him. Even above and below Naruto there was bones.

Naruto had his hand on the hilt of the sword strapped to his back. He was in a proverbial "jungle of bones", a place his three Kaguya opponents had created in only a minute of fighting. Considering what Naruto's first Kaguya opponent came out of when they met five minutes earlier, this was definetly not a good place to be.

"Look at the little runt." A voice called out from somewhere in the 'jungle'. "He's scared stiff. Let's put him out of his misery."

Naruto heard several popping noises, before he ducked a bone sword that someone had thrown at him. He was forced to block a second sword that came from his right and was swung at him downwards. Normally, he would have rolled to the side, kicked his foe down, and beheaded them, but all of these bones made it hard to maneuver. Instead, Naruto parried the sword and tried to cut down his assailant. Whoever it was, could have been any of the three Kaguya's that he was fighting, escaped back into the jungle, easily avoiding Naruto's blade.

'This isn't working.' Naruto realized. 'I'll never be able to beat them in here.' Naruto sidestepped several finger bullets and then raised his sword above his head.

"What's he trying to do?" One of the Kaguya said. "None of us are within his sword's reach."

"Maybe," It was the female Kaguya this time. "He's thinking of clearing away some of those bones."

The third Kaguya finished this three-sided conversation. "He'll never be able to cut through them with that sword of his. It's quite large, but it looks poorly constructed. It will probably shatter on impact."

Naruto whirled his weapon around in a huge arc, leveling all the bones that were directly around him. Then he leapt up into the air and landed on a building. He quickly dashed away from the Kaguyas.

The female drew out one of her ribs, and made a shortsword out of it. "That sword he's using isn't normal." she concluded. "Could it be one of the seven?"

The two males shrugged, and all three chased after Naruto.

Naruto jumped from building to building, trying to stay ahead of his foes. He felt the ground shake, and instinctively dodged the spikes that rose from the ground by jumping to the side. He landed in the street and kept running. Once again, the street felt surprisingly lonely on such a sunny day. The smell of blood once again reached Naruto's nose. 'Where are the ANBU? Aren't they supposed to be in charge of keeping out intruders?' Naruto leapt onto another building and over an array of bones that burst from the ground. He stopped running when another Kaguya burst through the roof of the building and swung his sword at him. Naruto leapt back, but was too slow. The Kaguya's blade left a deep gash right above the knee.

The other three Kaguya landed to the left, right, and back of Naruto respectively.

"Trapped like a rat." One of the Kaguya snickered. He drew out his finger bones, fastening them into kunai.

Naruto's eyes darted around. 'Another one? These guys keep coming.'

The Kaguya to the left of Naruto shot his finger bullets at him. Naruto rotated his sword, windmill style, and deflected them. The Kaguya behind Naruto struck next, but her sword was bounced to the side by an impressive parry by Naruto. His sword still in the air after the parry, Naruto had to use a kunai to stop the bony-versions of the same weapon that were thrown from overhead. Too bad that left him completely vulnerable to the Kaguya in front, who had decided to rush foreward with his sword aimed at Naruto's chest.

Just before Naruto was impaled, a hail of senbon rained from overhead, pinning the Kaguya to the ground. Naruto took this opportunity to cut down the Kaguya he had already parried. Then he stabbed the one on the ground downwards. Naruto's "rescuer", landed behind him.

"What are you doing here, Haku?" Naruto asked.

The effeminate boy made a small gesture with the senbon in his hands. "I finished buying senbon and was passing through this area, when I saw you on the roof in desperate need of help. What kind of friend would I be if let these guys kill you?"

Naruto aimed his sword towards one of the Kaguya. "I didn't need any help. I was just about to cut the guy in half."

"Whatever you need to tell yourself, Naruto-kun." Haku moved all of his senbon into his right hand, leaving his left one ready for his famous one-handed jutsus.

Naruto snickered. "Why can't you just do them with both hands like a normal guy?"

"Because I'm not a normal guy." Haku started his handseals, which Naruto recognized as a combination for a high-level ice-jutsu.

Naruto felt a deep rumbling in the ground, signifying the arrival of another Kaguya. 'There's no end to these guys.' Naruto thought. He grabbed Haku and told him, "No time for you fancy jutsus, we have to go." Naruto pulled Haku with him, and both jumped off of the roof as a forest of bones sprouted where they were standing.

Naruto and Haku landed in the street, and Haku pointed towards the center of town. "Let's go that way, Naruto-kun. That's where Zabuza wants us to meet him."

Naruto nodded and followed Haku. Along the way the two of them dodged forest after forest of bones that sprung up whenever another Kaguya surfaced. The wound in Naruto's leg started burning after all of this dodging, and he was feeling more than a little sluggish.

"I hope we get to wherever Zabuza is pretty soon, I can't take much more of this." Naruto forced himself to keep running, resisting the urge to take a break.

Haku noticed the red spot on the cargo shorts that Naruto was wearing."They managed to wound you?"

Naruto didn't need to answer, the blood running down his pants was evidence enough.

Minutes of running later, and Naruto was finally greeted by the sight he had been waiting to see. All of the Village's ninja were gathered around the Mizukage's tower, pushing back the army of Kaguya that were assaulting the village. This explained why there was no one guarding any of the other sectors in the village, however, it also raised some questions. 'So this is where our ninja were, but why are all of them this close to the Kage's tower? And why aren't the Anbu among them?' Were among the questions that Naruto asked himself. Naruto looked over to Haku for some answers, and was greeted by the other boy's queer, I know more then I'm willing to tell you, smile. Naruto shrugged, and the two of them kept going.

Haku and Naruto cut through the ninja, moving passed the tower and towards the residential district. Fortunately, the Kaguya got caught up in the fighting, so the bone forests stopped chasing them at this point. A short jog later, and Haku and Naruto were at the doorstep of a house with no numbers on the front door.

Naruto stepped aside and let Haku knock on the door. A slider was opened and a pair of eyes greeted Haku, "Haku..." they turned towards Naruto, "and Naruto, we've been waiting for you. Come inside." The door was opened, revealing that this building was filled with all of the people who were in Zabuza's house that morning, plus the entire ANBU squad.

Naruto stepped inside the house, and saw that Zabuza was sitting in a chair to his left, with a detailed map of the Mizukage's tower on the table in front of him. He seemed to be discussing strategy with some of the other people present.

Two of the guys he was talking to were those strange, masked twins from this morning who were chained together at the wrist. "Are you sure that you won't need some additional help, Zabuza-san? This is the Mizukage we're talking about."

Zabuza was offended by the statement. "I know what I'm doing! The Mizukage is nothing but a weakling who got into his position by stabbing us all in the back. Anyone could have seen that he would make a poor Kage. That's why the previous one turned down his nomination. Then the slimy bastard killed our real Kage so he could steal the position. I'm going to prove to the whole village that this man is weak, and I'll do that by myself. I won't need any help taking him down."

Naruto stomped over to Zabuza and tapped him on the shoulder. In his rage he let himself slip, and his eyes assumed the fox-squint that he had trained himself not to do. "Zabuza-sensei, what the hell's going on here! Why was I attacked by Kaguya after you sent me out to fetch you some kunai! And what's all this have to do with this plan of yours!"

"Everything, Naruto, everything."

That answer knocked the rage right out of Naruto. He scratched his head, "What?"

"Look closely at these blueprints." Zabuza turned them so that Naruto could see them more clearly. "This is the Mizukage's tower. The building is surrounded completely in water. The only entrance is the drawbridge in the front, and it is only lowered when the Mizukage releases his personal militia from the tower, to deal with large-scale riots and ninja attacks."

"The Mizukage has a personal militia?"

"Yes, it's composed of the strongest ninja in the village that are not associated with ANBU. A ninja force strong enough to even give me problems if I had to fight them directly. They make assassinating the Mizukage especially difficult."

'So that's what this is about.' Naruto thought. 'Assassinating the Mizukage.'

"I ochestrated this Kaguya attack so that the Tower would be opened, and my army here," Zabuza gestured at all of the ninja and ANBU he had gathered in the room. "could get into the open tower and kill the Kage."

Naruto moved his hands into thinking position, and absorbed all of this information. "You made those Kaguya attack me this morning?"

"Not exactly. They weren't supposed to attack until night, which is why I've called this emergency meeting in this safe house. Now, we'll have to attack during the day, and that means several parts of the plan must be changed. Much of our advantage will be lost since the Kage will be able to see us approach the Tower. In addition, it will be troublesome getting around his militia in broad daylight."

"Exactly, Zabuza, that is why we should call off the attack for now. Attacking the Mizukage on a day like this is suicide." A female ANBU near the back of the room made this statement.

Zabuza stood up. "Shut up! I make the decisions here." He walked over to the window. Outside, the fighting in front of the tower was visible. The Kaguya had fought valiantly up to this point, but the militia was dug in too well. They had stopped all of the Kaguya's momentum. It wouldn't be long before they started pushing them back. "Naruto, come here."

Naruto stepped over and peered out the window as well.

"We have until the last Kaguya is defeated to kill the Mizukage. Once they are all gone those ninja will turn all of their attention on us, and we will be slaughtered." Zabuza turned to Naruto. "I didn't tell you about this plan because you excite to easily when something this big is approaching, and I need you calm and collected for what we are about to do. Even with those Kaguya over there, someone is still going to have to keep the Kage's ninja from running back in there when I slit his throat. That someone is you."

"I'm not going to be in there fighting the Kage as well?"

"That was the original plan, but," Zabuza patted Naruto on the head. "Those Kaguya screwed everything up. I don't know what they're trying to accomplish, but attacking like this in plain daylight was foolish. They're all going to die, possibly even faster than if they'd listened to me and struck at night, and that means that I'll need extra soldiers to pick up the slack. If I can't handle the Kage, I'll call for you." Zabuza looked up at the rest of the ninja in the room. "Until then, It's your job to keep that militia out of the tower!"

Zabuza, Naruto, Haku, and a small army's worth of ANBU, Rain-nin, and Missing-nin from the Mist village, left the building where they had previously been and rushed out into the front of the Mizukage's tower.

A member of the Mizukage's personal militia looked towards the approaching army right after slitting the throat of yet another Kaguya. "Who the hell are those guys? And why is Zabuza with them?"

Zabuza put on his ANBU mask, and Haku revealed that he had one of his own. Naruto raised his arm up in protest, but Haku just stuffed another ANBU mask in his hand.

Naruto looked at his mask, it was shaped like a penguin of all things. "What the hell is this?"

"Zabuza-san says that ANBU masks improve the focus of the one who wears them, making them perfect for any assassination."

"That's not what I meant, Haku." Naruto said before putting on his admittingly embarrasing mask.

Zabuza nodded at Haku and Naruto, and suddenly the whole makeshift army rushed right into the Mizukage's militia. Naruto pushed past ninja after ninja, shoving most of them aside. He only drew his sword to cut down the few that realized that it was strange that ninja from the Hidden Village of the Mist were moving away from the people who were attacking it.

Naruto, and the rest of Zabuza's "army" broke through the other side of the militia, but not all of their number had made it. As much as a third of the army was missing, probably stuck somewhere inside the battle between the Mist village and the Kaguya clan.

Zabuza walked up to the entrance of the tower. "This is where we part ways, Naruto and Haku. Don't let anyone through here."

Naruto nodded and drew his sword, pointing it the Kage's militia.

Haku drew out some senbon. "Is your wound okay, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto tapped his leg, where a nasty gash had been made by those Kaguya earlier. "You know that I heal fast, Haku. My leg's as good as new."

The rest of Zabuza's army followed Haku and Naruto, drawing out their weapons and pointing them towards their enemy.

It was at this point that the some of the Militia men realized what was going on. One of them turned to this buddy. "Those ninja back there are pointing their weapons at us, and look, most of them are wearing Rain headbands."

Several of the Kage's soldiers turned around. "Seems these guys are making war against our village as well." one of them said. He pulled out a single kunai. "We might as well take them out. Those Kaguya will never get this close to the tower anyway."

Naruto tightened his grip on his sword. "Go ahead and try."

...Meanwhile...

Zabuza stepped inside the Kage's throne room, where the Mizukage himself and two ninja lied in wait.

The Mizukage smirked, "You don't know how long I've waited for this day. Now I finally have an excuse to execute you, but I'm very disappointed that you didn't bring in Naruto as well. I really wanted to show him what would happen to him if he ever crossed me."

Zabuza reached up and gripped the hilt of his sword. "I didn't bring him, because I didn't want Naruto to get nightmares from seeing the bloody mess that I'm going to cut you into."

* * *

I guess I'll stop it right here, since I really need to have some beans now. You see, I learned something very deep from a close friend of mine. The problem that I had before, wasn't that I was smoking beans, it was that I was smoking them for the _wrong_ reasons. Before I smoked them to get ideas, but I've learned that that isn't the way to go. You have to come up with ideas, and then smoke beans afterwards to reward yourself... Give me a second (Cue Popeye Music)

_Hey. Whassup homies! How ya'll doin'. Me?Ya'll wanna know how I'm doin'. Yeah, I'm doin' alright. All I know is, are ya'll ready? Boost Mobile is the stuff, man! There's nothing more reliable or cool than my boost mobile fone! And I'm not just saying that 'cuz of all the money that the're givin' me. So go out and get yoselves one._

_Beanizzle Smokizzle, er, Erizzle out!_


	6. Chapter 6: The Plan Fails?

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, there would be no pants in the Hidden Village of the Sound. It would be pretty hard for Orichimaru to come off as an evil bastard in his undies. I'll Demonstrate:

Orichimaru; "S-s-s-s-s-sasuke-kunnn, Ssssss."

Sasuke; "Where are your pants?"

Orichimaru; (Looks at own legs, realizes that he's not wearing any, blushes, and runs off into the woods, never to be heard from again.)

The End

That's all I have to say for right now. Back to the story!

_Zabuza stepped inside the Kage's throne room, where the Mizukage himself and two ninja lied in wait._

_The Mizukage smirked, "You don't know how long I've waited for this day. Now I finally have an excuse to execute you, but I'm very disappointed that you didn't bring in Naruto as well. I really wanted to show him what would happen to him if he ever crossed me."_

_Zabuza reached up and gripped the hilt of his sword. "I didn't bring him, because I didn't want Naruto to get nightmares from seeing the bloody mess that I'm going to cut you into."_

Without Uzumaki Ch. 6:

The Mizukage stood up from his throne, drawing out a ninjato. His face contorted into that creepy grin of his, eyes squinting until they were no longer visible, his teeth stretching across his face. "You must be pretty confident in yourself, Zabuza-kun, making threats like that." He nodded at the ninja beside him. "Take care of this pest."

Suddenly Zabuza was surrounded, both of the ninja that had been beside the Kage just seconds before were now standing beside Zabuza with their kunai drawn. The ninja to the left of Zabuza even had a jutsu ready, his kunai spewing electricity into the air.

The other ninja, the one holding a non-electrified kunai, taunted Zabuza. "Scared, Zabuza? Give up now and we'll give you a painless death."

Zabuza began to slowly pull his sword from its sheath. "No, only you two will die if you attack me."

The ninja holding the electrified kunai spoke next, "Now! Before he draws his sword!"

The other ninja rushed forward, closing in right before Zabuza finished pulling his sword out.

Zabuza smirked, before pushing his sword all the way back into his sheath and ducking the ninja's kunai stab, Zabuza then seamlessly drew his own kunai and dragged it upwards through his assailant's chest.

The ninja stumbled backwards, and then fell to the floor.

Zabuza formed one half of the handseal for the ram and held it right in front of his mask. "Aren't you going to attack me as well?" he said to the remaining ninja.

The second ninja didn't waste any time getting behind Zabuza, then he tried to cut the ANBU captain's back open with his electrified kunai. Just before his blade made contact, Zabuza disappeared.

The ninja reared backwards, assuming a defensive stance with his electric kunai pointed upwards. He looked around for Zabuza, but could find no sign of him in the throne room. "How could he just disappear like that? Did he make himself invisible?" He turned around, facing the Mizukage. He was about to ask the Kage for advice, but stopped when he heard a whooshing noise to his left.

The ninja threw his kunai as he turned to his left, expecting to see Zabuza just as he was hit with the projectile. However as he was turning, he felt his arms and neck being snatched up into a head lock. He tried to break free, and in the process of that he realized who it was that was holding him. 'When did Zabuza get behind me? And if he's behind me, then who did I throw a kunai at?' The ninja turned his head forward, and saw his kunai bounce off of Zabuza's sword, which was quickly spinning towards him. He looked up at Zabuza, desperation etched on his face. "How did you?"

Zabuza didn't have enough time to answer, he pushed the ninja forward and then disappeared, grabbing the hilt of his blade as it pierced his enemy's chest. He pulled it out, wiped it off with a rag, and then resheathed it.

The Mizukage clapped, "Very good, Zabuza-kun. I didn't know that you could control your sword in mid-air with your chakra." The Kage took his ninjato out of its sheath. "Still, I didn't expect you to be able to defeat two special-jounin so quickly."

"I came here to kill _you_! What made you think those two grunts would even slow me down!"

The Mizukage removed his sheath from his hip, and moved it onto his back. Then he sheathed his sword, and grabbed its hilt with his right hand. He placed his other hand in front his face, with his fingers forming half of the ram handseal. "Very well. I see that I will have to deal with you personally. From now on, this fight is one-on-one."

Zabuza would have raised an eyebrow, if he had any. "That stance. When did you learn silent killing techniques?"

The Mizukage tensed up for a second before disappearing.

"That's the same move I used to kill his second henchman." Zabuza closed his eyes, listening for any clue his enemy's location. 'but I know its weakness.'

Zabuza blocked several kunai that were thrown from behind him, then he turned around, already expecting his opponents attack to be from that direction. Sure enough, the Kage materialized in front of Zabuza, with his ninjato out in front of him. Zabuza swung his sword, expecting to cut the Mizukage in half, but he just disappeared again. Zabuza felt his arm be pulled into a rough shoulder lock, then he watched as the Kage lowered his ninjato until it was only inches from his neck.

"You're too slow, Zabuza-kun." the Kage declared. "Even if you predict how I'm going to attack, it won't help if I just avoid the counterattack."

Zabuza smirked, "What counter-attack? That was merely a feint." Zabuza disappeared the second he finished that sentence.

The Mizukage's eyes widened, 'Where did he go? And why do my arms feel like they're...' This is when he realized that him and Zabuza had switched places. Now he was in an armlock, and Zabuza was holding his cleaver to the Kage's throat.

The Mizukage stared at Zabuza's sword, which was hovering an inch from his neck, 'I see. Zabuza-kun was just pretending to attack me, so I would run around behind him and put him in this lock. He must have been preparing this kawamiri while I did that, so he could switch places with me.'

"This is it for you, Keito. It's been nice knowing you." Zabuza slowly moved his weapon up against the Kage's throat, preparing to execute him.

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

_Now for a little backstory on silent-killing techniques._

_Silent-killing techniques are the ancient combat style that all ninja employed prior to the discovery of chakra. Back then, ninja prided themselves on their ability to stay completely hidden, even when they were slaying their opponents. A ninja's worth was only as great as the number of people he could kill simultaneously before being discovered. The standing record for consecutive silent-kills is held by none other than Zabuza, for his slaying of over a hundred academy students at the Mist Ninja Academy, before he even became a ninja himself._

_Silent killing techniques emphasize a combination of speed and invisbility that most people no longer value, with the existence of genjutsu allowing a ninja to simply convince their victim that nothing is happening while they slit their throats. However, there is around fifty different ways to break most genjutsu that even a non-ninja can use. Silent killing techniques cannot be defeated so easily._

_The silent-killing technique that Zabuza and the Mizukage both employed in this chapter has a simple name, Kage (That's shadow for all of you who haven't actually watched Naruto), the user moves at a speed so fast that their opponent cannot see them, while silencing their footsteps at the same time. He or she uses the short amount of time that this technique actually lasts to get behind their opponent. Once there they follow the opponent's back and stay in their blind spot until they see an opportunity to finish them off. If used by a true master, this technique is a guaranteed finisher on any opponent as long as they are slower than you are and don't have eyes in the back of their head or anything like that._

_Well, that's all I have to say about that, let's check back in with Naruto..._

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

... Outside of the Mizukage's tower...

Naruto, Haku, and the rest of Zabuza's army were all fighting side-by-side, doing their best to keep their enemy from getting past them and going into the tower to support the Mizukage. At their feet lied the two ninja who first noticed that they were against the Mizukage, along with several others, but that was only the tip of the iceberg as far as their enemy was concerned. It looked like as many as one hundred soldiers were standing in front of them, to their twenty, and the only reason that they hadn't assaulted Zabuza's team was because they were so preoccupied with the Kaguya, at the moment.

It was at this point that Naruto began to wrap an explosive note around one of his kunai, a scowl covering his face. 'We've been standing here, staring at their backs for almost ten minutes. You'd think at least a couple more would notice that we are here.' Naruto vigorously wrapped kunai after kunai in explosives. He obviously planned to do something spectacular, but stopped when he felt his arm being grabbed. Naruto looked to his right at Haku, who was holding his forearm so he couldn't continue to wrap his kunai. Naruto had an expression on his face that seemed to be saying, 'What's the big deal?'

"What are you about to do, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto snatched his arm out of Haku's grasp. "Ever since we beat up those guys," he gestured towards the small pile of ninja that they had already defeated, "We've just been standing here watching those guys fight the Kaguya. None of them have noticed us. Do they think that we're weak? Weaker than those Kaguya that are holding all of their attention?"

Haku scratched his head, as if he was thinking hard. "But isn't that a good thing, Naruto-kun? The longer until they notice us, the more they'll tire themselves out fighting the Kaguya, and the more time we'll have to rest. Don't be in such a rush, Naruto! When those ninja figure out that we're here, they could kill us!"

Naruto laughed, "As if those guys could beat me! I'm Naruto, one of the swordsman of the mist and the sucessor to Zabuza's special killing techniques!"

Haku sighed, hiding his face with one hand, 'That's silent killing techniques, Naruto-kun.' He thought to himself.

"I could NEVER lose to guys like these!"

Suddenly, the whole back row of the Mizukage's army turned around. Each and every one was wearing an expression that would cause babies and small children to cry. The same thought was flowing through each and every one of their brains. 'How could we let someone that loud get behind us!' There was at least twenty ninja in that group, and most of them were using umbrellas, as opposed to the kunai that the ninja that Naruto's team beat had used. They all stepped forward and matched Naruto and the other's line formation, pulling out their umbrellas. It looked like this fight was going to be one-on-one, with every single one of the ninja on Zabuza's side going up against a single ninja on the Kage's.

Haku pulled out more senbon. "Naruto you baka." He cursed almost silently. "It might have been an hour before they noticed us. Now I might get blood on my kimono."

Naruto gripped the sword that was strapped to his back. "Don't be a pushover, Haku. Come on, this is the perfect time to show off those one-handed jutsus you always brag about."

Haku turned his face towards Naruto, and after deliberating with himself briefly, nodded. "Very well. I was getting tired of standing here as well. Killing one of these guys should help pass the time until Zabuza finishes off the Mizukage."

The ninja that was standing across from Haku started laughing. "Zabuza, finishing off the Mizukage?" The guy laughed even harder. "That could never happen, not even in a million years!"

Naruto's expression grew darker. "What do you mean by that? Of course Zabuza will beat him! The Mizukage doesn't stand a chance!"

The ninja was rolling on the ground now, clutching his sides. "You are too funny kid!" Using a handspring he jumped back onto his feet. "I'll tell you what kid, I'm going to do you a little favor."

"Favor? I don't need any favors from you."

"No, you're going to like this one." The guy caught himself, forcing himself to stop laughing. "After I kill your little girlfriend over here,"

A blood vessel almost burst in Haku's skull, 'Girl! How could he mistake me for a girl! This is a male kimono, embroidered with blue flowers and goldfish!' Haku crossed his arms and hmphed.

The guy paused, 'She just hmphed. What was that for? Oh, I get it. She's just pissed because I called her that guy's girlfriend and she really isn't. Whatever.' He started again, "After I kill that girl over there, I'm going to kill you, too! That way you won't have to see Zabuza's bloody carcass after the Mizukage rips him apart."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

... Back in the Kage's throne room ...

"This is it for you, Keito. It's been nice knowing you." Zabuza slit the Mizukage's throat, dragging his huge cleaver all the way across it, ensuring that there was no way that "Keito" could survive.

The Mizukage's body tumbled to the ground, slamming into it with a resounding thump.

Zabuza was just about to turn around and leave, when he saw the one thing that he hadn't been expecting. The Kage's body turned into water and melted into the ground. Zabuza's eyes shot wide open. 'Shit! Where the hell did he go!' Zabuza whipped his sword out of its sheath, standing in the center of the throne room, straining every one of his senses to the maximum, trying to figure out where the Kage went to.

"I'm right over here, Zabuza-kun."

Zabuza turned towards the voice, only to find that the Kage had been sitting in his chair the whole time. "What the..."

The Kage grinned, "Isn't it obvious? When I disappeared, I just went behind this chair and made a water clone for you to fight." He began to wag his finger back and forth."I wanted to see what kind of skills you are planning to beat me with."

"That's not what I mean!" Zabuza growled. "You used the Water Clone Jutsu. What I want to know is how. How could you make a water clone, if there's no water in here?"

The Mizukage's grin grew even wider. "That isn't true at all Zabuza-kun."

"Huh?" that was the only thing that Zabuza had to say to that.

"There's all the water that I could ever ask for in here. Tell me, Zabuza-kun, have you ever noticed how beautiful the walls in this tower are?"

"Huh?" Zabuza repeated the same answer that he gave to the Kage's previous statement.

"That's because they aren't made out of any kind of stone or marble that anyone besides me could ever produce. The way that the walls shimmer, the fact that they're so smooth, this isn't something that you'll find in the towers of any Kage besides me. Do you know why that is?"

"Of course not!"

"It's my ability, Zabuza-kun. All Kage need one, a trick they can do that no one else can reproduce. I've heard that the Hokage can summon a monkey, for example. I also heard that his predecessor could grow trees with his chakra." The Kage slowly moved one of his hands, pointing the palm at Zabuza.

Zabuza moved his sword between himself and the Kage, hoping that that would protect him from whatever technique his enemy would use.

"Well, my ability allows me to turn water into solid objects by solidifying it with my chakra. Once my technique is finished, the object stays solid until it is hit with another blast of my chakra." The Kage formed the handseal for the dragon. "So, Zabuza-kun, how do you like the walls and floor of my throne room? Aren't they beautiful?"

Zabuza felt the ground shudder. He looked down and realized, to his extreme horror, that the floor directly behind him was slowly rising upwards. 'No way. Don't tell me that he made his whole tower out of water.'

The Mizukage chuckled. "I can tell by the expression on your face that you've finally figured out what I've been hinting at. That's right, this entire tower is actually an enormous water supply that only I can use! Water Explosion Jutsu!"

Zabuza dodged to the right side, just in time to be hit by a blast of water that came sideways out of the wall to his left. He skidded across the ground like a pebble on a pond, before coming to a stop when he slammed into a wall.

At this point, the Mizukage burst into uncontrollable laughter. "Zabuza-kun!" He screamed between his frenzied laughs. "Just because I made the ground shake doesn't mean that I was attacking from it! You should think more before dodging!" He continued to laugh, leaning back into his chair until it fell backwards. He wiped the tears from his eyes, and looked up, only to see Zabuza looming over him. "Eh?" the Kage said, flinching as Zabuza drew his sword.

Now it was Zabuza's turn to chuckle. "I used the same move that you did. I made a water clone and then moved behind you. Then I waited for you to show me this ability of yours." Zabuza held his sword to the Kage's nose. "You're probably wondering where I got the water for my jutsu from, aren't you?'

"Not really. You used the water that my clone burst into."

Now it was Zabuza's turn to flinch. 'What? He already knows what I did.'

"Away from me! Water Style: Bullet!" The Kage opened his mouth, and spit out a high-speed sphere of water. It completely caught Zabuza off-guard, piercing through his chest and bursting him into water. "Shit! How many water-clones did he make?" The Mizukage said. Then he jumped onto his feet, only to see Zabuza's cleaver rushing towards his chest.

"Just those two." Zabuza said, before doubling his speed. "Die, Keito!"

The Kage could only raise his hands in front of his chest, in a desperate attempt to shield himself, as Zabuza's sword pierced through skin, muscle, and bone.

Zabuza was looking straight down when he made that stab, his eyes refusing to look when he dealt the finishing blow. He drew his mouth into a weak smile. 'Sorry, Keito, but I couldn't let you go on living after what you've done. No matter what kind of friendship we had before you did it.' Zabuza tried to tug his sword back out of the Kage's body, but to his surprise it seemed to be stuck. He looked up, and saw that hands were gripping his sword. Zabuza smirked, "Keito, you're difficult to the end. Very well, I guess I'll have to sever your neck to kill you." He gave his sword a deeper tug before looking up to face the man he stabbed.

What Zabuza saw was confusing. "A smile? Why are you smiling?"

There was a slight pause before the answer came. "Because I've waited so long to meet you, Zabuza-san."

Zabuza finished looking up and realized that the person on the end of his sword wasn't Keito, it was someone different entirely.

"The name's, Hitode. My father has ordered me to defeat you, Zabuza-san."

Zabuza looked up into the orange eyes of the person who said this, and realized that this was going to be an entirely different fight than before. 'I've pushed my sword halfway through this guy's chest, but he's still able to keep me from pulling it out with just the strength of his arms. What is this guy?' Zabuza gave his sword another tug, but it still wouldn't remove itself from the chest of his new foe. "Good Luck doing that, kid." Zabuza said as he continued to pull on his sword. "You're going to need it."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

...Meanwhile...

Naruto, Haku, one female ANBU, and those strange twins that were changed at the wrist were the only members of Zabuza's team left. They had barely managed to defeat the back row of the Mizukage's army which was made up of around twenty soldiers, however that only caused more troops to break off from the mass in front of them in order to engage them. Now it was the five of them against twenty enemies who were, in comparison, quite fresh since they had barely seen any action from the Kaguya up ahead. To make matters even worst, the lack of the appearance of any more bony forests signified that the number of Kaguya had decreased dramatically. This battle was almost over, and if Zabuza didn't take out the Kage before it ended, him, Naruto and all the others were dead.

One of the guys who had turned to face Naruto and friends stood out from the rest. His face was badly scarred, he wore a trenchcoat, and an array of umbrellas were strapped to his back. He pulled one out and pointed it right at Naruto. "It's quite impressive that you five took out so many of us, but it looks like you are on your last legs." His eyes followed Naruto as he stumbled sideways, trying to keep his balance even though he was on the verge of falling. "I guess that I'll finish you off now." He hurled the umbrella at Naruto, smiling as the projectile spiralled closer and closer to its mark.

Suddenly, Haku appeared between the umbrella and its target, using his famous ice-mirror teleportation trick, and grabbed it by the handle. "I won't let you hurt Naruto. Even if he was too stupid to conserve his energy during this battle."

"Really now?" The umbrella-guy made a gesture towards the umbrella with his hand. "Open!" The umbrella shot open, despite being in Haku's hand, and somehow released hundreds of senbon towards Naruto.

Haku did his one-handed seals again, and teleported a second time. However, this time there was no umbrella to grab. The senbon slammed into Haku as he used his body as a shield for Naruto, somehow sending him flying right into the person he was trying to protect.

Naruto couldn't move his body, but he was still able to turn his head towards the boy who saved him. "Haku. You... saved... me."

There was no answer from the effeminate boy.

"Haku, say something. Why did you save me?" Naruto said.

"He can't answer you, kid. That guy's dead." He pulled out a second umbrella. "And soon you'll be, too."

Naruto's eyes opened in shock. 'Haku... dead? It can't be. It can't be.' New strength found its way into Naruto's body. "It can't be!" Naruto jumped onto his feet, landing on all fours.

The other boy stared closely at Naruto's new look. 'His eyes turned red. That's strange.' "That's a neat trick, making your body turn red like that. But I'm going to end this now!"

* * *

I have to end this chapter right now. It's four in the morning and I'm beat! As you can see, this chapter is already much longer than all my previous ones. I'll probably finish it within a week.

Good Night, and please review!


	7. Chapter 7: The Escape Plan

Disclaimer: I never owned Naruto and I never will!

All of you! Quake before the mighty powers of Spellcheck! That's right, I've finally managed to install Open Office into my computer, so there will be far less spelling and grammatical errors in my story for now on. However, its come at a great price. Something crazy has been going on with the website, and the document manager hasn't been working properly since Sunday. In other words, the following chapter has been finished for days now, but I couldn't submit it.

Enjoy this slightly delayed chapter.

_"Haku, say something. Why did you save me?" Naruto said._

_"He can't answer you, kid. That guy's dead." The umbrella-guy pulled out an umbrella. "And soon you'll be, too."_

_Naruto's eyes opened in shock. 'Haku... dead? It can't be. It can't be.' New strength found its way into Naruto's body. "It can't be!" Naruto jumped onto his feet, landing on all fours._

_The other boy stared closely at Naruto's new look. 'His eyes turned red. That's strange.' "That's a neat trick, making your body turn red like that. But I'm going to end this now!"_

Without Uzumaki Ch. 7:

Naruto's body started shaking violently as what appeared to be fire started to twist around him. Naruto started mumbling to himself, "kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill..." Naruto ran towards the umbrella guy at this point, continuing his insane chanting. "kill, **kill**!"

'What's up with this kid?' The guy thought. 'First he turns red, and now I think his voice just dropped several decibels. Did he just hit puberty or something?'

Naruto jumped into the air, his hands stretched out towards his enemy, and the nails on his fingers made it look like he had claws. "kill... kill. I'm going to **kill** you!"

The Umbrella-guy jumped backwards, avoiding Naruto's claw swipe. Then he hurled his umbrella into the boy's chest. It exploded, throwing fire, dirt, and Naruto into the air.

The umbrella-dude watched Naruto rise upwards into the sky with a smile on his face, "A direct hit. And I put enough explosives in that umbrella to take out a dragon. But just in case he survived..." He pulled out his remaining two umbrellas and spun them in his hands, assuming a duel-weapon stance that was normally reserved for swords.

Naruto fell back down into the cloud of smoke that was produced by the explosion.

The guy gave Naruto a thirty second grace period, watching the smoke settle and making sure that there was no movement from Naruto. He started to put his umbrellas away when he was satisfied that Naruto was dead, "Guess he didn't survive after all. I expected a little more than this when I saw him release all of that chakra. Oh well." He started to push his first umbrella into one of the holes in his coat where he stored his weapons, but there was a flash of red that pierced through the smoke. The umbrella guy swung his umbrellas in front of him so that they formed an x that protected his face. He was just in time, since Naruto's fist shot out of the smoke a mere second later, breaking both umbrellas as if they were twigs.

At the very last second, just as Naruto's claw began to scratch his cheek, the umbrella-guy moved his head to the side, and he kicked Naruto in the chest to knock him backwards. He looked at the two broken umbrella poles in his hand, and threw them to the side. "So, seeing that guy die gets you this angry, huh? Well then, I guess I should let you in on a little secret."

... Meanwhile ...

It was at this point that the remaining members of Zabuza's army finished off their latest batch of enemies. There were four left, if you counted the deceased Haku, but only three if you didn't. There were those twins that Zabuza kept around. He just called them the demon brothers since trying not to get their names mixed up when they looked exactly the same was way too difficult. Then there was that female ANBU who had managed to survive for this long even though she had originally been opposed to attacking the Kage during the day.

The demon brothers were currently standing over the body of the last ninja they killed. He was wrapped completely in barbed wire, and had died from blood loss due to the countless cuts on his body produced by the aforementioned wire.

One of the brothers, lets just refer to him as the first brother, pressed a switch on the metal glove that he was wearing, detaching it from the barbed wire. "I expected Haku to handle most of these opponents, not us." He said to his brother.

The second brother began the tedious work of untangling the wire from the body it was wrapped around, so that he could roll it back into his glove. He started by rolling the body across the ground with his foot. "Yes, it is too bad that Haku is dead. We used our weapon so much that the wire almost broke. Reattaching this will be so troublesome." He tried to pull the wire free from the body, but it seemed to be caught on something, probably a bone. "Go check Haku's body for kunai, I'm going to have to cut this free." He continued tugging as his brother approached Haku's body.

The first brother walked up to Haku, who was still covered in senbon. The needles had actually hit him in a way that stuck him to a wall, so the demon brother started by removing some of them so that he could stretch Haku out on the ground. He began searching the kid for a kunai holster, but stopped when he felt some blood hit him in the face. He jumped backwards when Haku coughed again, spraying more blood.

"Hey brother, I got the chain free! It was just stuck in the guy's shirt!" The second brother yelled from the distance. He walked over to his brother, pausing when he saw him jump away from Haku's body. "What's wrong, brother?" he said.

"He's not dead." the first brother declared, still watching Haku's body.

"Who are you talking about?" The second brother followed the direction that his brother's eyes were looking in. "Haku's not dead? What makes you say that?"

"He just coughed blood on me. Dead people can't do that."

The second brother walked up to Haku and prodded him with his foot. Haku coughed again, getting blood on the second brother's shoe. "Hmm. I see why Zabuza talks so highly of this kid. There's few people who could avoid a critical wound when hit by this many senbon." He took his foot off of Haku's chest. "Brother, go fetch that medic-nin that Zabuza sent with us. You know, the one with blue hair."

The first brother nodded, before running off to find the remaining member of Zabuza's team. He found her a good ways away, nursing a shoulder wound with the dead bodies of three enemy ninja around her. Thirty seconds later, the two brothers were standing besides Haku's body as the ANBU crouched beside him and started investigating it.

She started by lifting up his arm and checking his pulse. "Well, I'll be damned." She said. "He has a pulse, but it is very weak." She opened up Haku's kimono and plucked a couple of the senbon, paying special attention to how deep the holes they made were, and their position in the kid's body. "None of his organ's were hit, and the wounds aren't deep enough to be fatal. It's surprising that Haku was hurt this bad by needles like this, unless..." She molded chakra around her fingers, causing them to glow a light-green color. She pressed one of her fingers against one of the senbon. Her chakra changed color, turning from green to purple. "Poison..." she muttered.

... Further away from the tower...

Naruto rushed the umbrella-guy again, aiming for his face and throwing a violent punch.

The guy rolled to the side, barely avoiding the attack. "Hold your horses there, buddy. I told you that I have a secret to tell you."

Naruto landed on the ground and spun around. He prepared to attack again, baring his fangs.

The umbrella-guy reached into his pocket and whipped out a green vial. "Your friend's not dead yet."

Naruto stopped mid-dash, stopping himself by digging his claws into the ground.

The umbrella-guy waved the vial side-to-side, making sure that Naruto was paying attention. "When I said he was, I meant that he was as good as dead since he took a hit from my senbon. I coated them in a special poison that only my family makes. It is very slow acting, taking as much as an hour to kill its victim if they only receive the standard dose. This vial in my hand's the only antidote..." The guy looked into his hand where he had been holding the vial, and quickly realized that it was gone. He looked behind him to see that Naruto had somehow snatched the vial from him while he was talking and was now running towards Haku. 'Kuso!' The guy mentally cursed. He pulled out a kunai, his last weapon, and ran after Naruto.

Naruto made his way towards Haku, the demon brothers, and that anbu woman, with the umbrella-guy right on his tail. He threw the vial towards the ANBU, shouting, "This vial has the antidote in it! Give it to Haku!"

The umbrella-guy threw his kunai, hoping to intercept the vial in mid-air.

The demon brothers were all poised to catch the vial, but then they saw a kunai being hurled towards it. The first brother spoke, "Let's go, brother." The two brothers attached their gloves together using a bladed-chain. Then the second brother grabbed the other one by the back of the shirt and hurled him towards the vial.

The first brother grabbed the vial and bounced the kunai to the side using his metal glove, then he pulled on the chain, throwing his brother past him.

The second brother flew over the umbrella-guy, who hadn't stopped chasing Naruto even after tossing his last weapon. That was a huge mistake, since it allowed the demon brothers to use their patented tag-team move, wrapping the guy up with the bladed-chain so that he couldn't move a muscle. The brothers initiated their finishing move with a simple phrase, "Do it." Seconds later and all that was left of the umbrella-guy was chunks of meat on the ground.

Meanwhile, the female ANBU placed the antidote in a syringe that she produced from absolutely no where, and stabbed it into Haku's neck. "I hope that that guy wasn't lying about this antidote." She squeezed the green liquid into Haku's neck. Once all of it was in, she checked Haku out with a medical scanning jutsu. She let out the breath she had been holding, then she took a last look at the vial before letting it fall onto the ground. "Guess this was an antidote after all."

Naruto took a seat next to Haku, clutching his chest. He spoke to the other boy despite the fact that he was unconscious. "Damnit, you queer-bastard. You had me scared there for a minute. But... I knew... that..." Naruto fell sideways mid-sentence and his eyes widened in pain. His chest felt like it was on fire.

The anbu stepped over to Naruto. She noted the blood that was pooling under his body. "You don't look much better than Haku." she said. "But great work getting that antidote. He would have died without it." She covered her hands with medical chakra, and applied a layer to Naruto's chest. The wound there was massive and was burned thoroughly, obviously caused by that direct hit from an explosive umbrella.

Meanwhile, the Demon Brothers were once again having problems with their chain-gloves. The first brother looked at the broken links of the chain that were scattered across the ground. "We should have brought an extra one, brother."

The second brother nodded in agreement. He turned around to face his sibling, and somehow also ended up facing the double doors that led into the Mizukage's tower. He was just in time to see Zabuza's sword appear through the space between doors and slowly work its way down, cutting the doors open. Zabuza himself stumbled through the doors, deep wounds and blood scattered across his body.

"Zabuza-san!" both brothers yelled. They dashed forward and caught the big man right before he fell to the ground.

Zabuza talked, with visible effort showing on his face, to the brothers, "Where's Naruto and Haku? We have to make our escape, now."

"Escape? Why Zabuza-san?" the first brother said.

"Was the Mizukage too powerful for you?" the second said. "I'm sure that if the three of us worked together..."

Zabuza pushed the brothers to the side and pulled the wrappings off of his face so that he could cough blood onto the ground. "It wasn't the Kage who did this to me. The person in the tower was an impostor." He said once he finished

"What do you mean, impostor?" The first brother asked.

"Then where's the real Kage?" the second one said.

Zabuza stood up and brushed himself off. "I don't know. He's probably still in the tower somewhere, since he was manipulating it during my fight with the other guy." Zabuza looked into the sky as a few rain clouds appeared overhead. "I had already expected Keito to try something like this, telling someone to henge into him and fight me in his stead. He never was one for a good battle." A downpour started, gushing water down on the tower from way up high. "What I didn't expect was for his double to be that powerful. I couldn't even lay a finger on him."

"You didn't land a single hit?" One of the brothers asked.

"Yeah, I hit him all right, but hitting him wasn't the problem. I couldn't _hurt_ him at all." Zabuza scanned the area. "You guys did a good job pushing the Mizukage's army back. You depleted their strength by at least eighty." He looked back towards the Demon Brothers. "Where's Naruto and Haku. It's time for us to leave."

The Demon Brothers pointed towards Zabuza's left where Haku was still on the ground, being treated by the ANBU. Naruto was on his feet, stumbling back and forth trying to keep his balance. He had his shirt open so a small gash was visible in his chest. It seemed to be rapidly closing up, so Naruto would probably be injury-less in a few more minutes.

Zabuza started to approach the group, his escape plan already in his brain. He looked to his right, into the battlefield. Even after all this time passed, there seemed to be at least three Kaguya left, fighting for their lives against the last twenty members of the Mizukage's army. 'That should do.' Zabuza thought. 'We'll leave the way that we came.' Zabuza turned back towards where Haku was, and suddenly froze in place. He pulled his sword out of its sheath.

The Demon Brothers saw Zabuza's look of surprise and looked towards Haku as well. There was something very weird going on over there. They looked on as the female ANBU slowly rose to her feet, a look of pure terror on her face. Even after standing up completely straight, she continued to rise until her feet were no longer on the ground. She silently mouthed the words, "Help me." Towards the brothers and Zabuza.

"Someone's choking her." one of the brothers stated. "Someone invisible."

Naruto had already drawn his own blade, and was also facing the female ANBU. From his position he could clearly see what was wrong. He could see fingers wrapped around her neck, squeezing the life out of her. What made things strange was the fact that the fingers appeared to be made out of water, and were connected to a watery arm that had extended out of the ground. There was no body as far as Naruto could tell. Just an extremely long arm that had stretched out of the ground.

Naruto set his feet and aimed his sword at the arm. "Don't worry!" he said to the ANBU. "I'll get you free!" He rushed forward as soon as he was done shouting.

"Wait, Naruto!" Zabuza said from his position hundreds of feet away. "Forget about her! Grab Haku and come over here!"

"What! How could I just forget about her! She's the one who saved Haku!" Naruto said. He ran towards the arm and tried to cut it off of the ANBU, but, to his utter surprise, his sword went right through it.

Suddenly, a second arm burst from the ground, upper cutting Naruto right in the chin. The boy flew through the air and fell to the ground, hard. He spit out blood as he felt pain rack his body, stemming from his chest wound. Naruto looked towards the ANBU, who was still in the grasp of the water arm. Now there was a second arm that was also extending out of the ground. Naruto watched as a mass of water began to slowly rise out of the ground, becoming shaped more and more like a human as time passed. It was attached to both arms.

"Naruto! Hurry up and grab Haku before he finishes materializing! If you take any longer we won't be able to escape!" Zabuza said to his apprentice.

Naruto was still paralyzed by the pain, so he could only watch as the water transformed into a person who looked several years older than him. This guy was dressed in a raincoat, and his pants were devoid of any kunai holsters, or any weapon holsters at all for that matter. There were two orange, star symbols printed on his coat, one on the back and one on the sleeve. There was also an orange symbol drawn on this guy's left eye, somehow, which appeared to be in the shape of a star. The orange stars obviously meant something, but what that was wasn't very clear.

He looked at Naruto and smiled, while continuing to choke the female ANBU. "Hi there, Naruto. I've heard great things about you." He pointed towards himself with the thumb of his left hand. "The name's Hitode, but that is more of a title than a name. You can call me Hito for short.'

'There's a starfish pattern on his coat, and his name even means starfish. Plus, his eye has a star drawn on it. Is that supposed to stand for something?' Naruto forced himself to stand to his feet and aimed his sword at the water-guy's throat. " Drop her, now! If you don't, I'll kill you!" Naruto said.

Hito balled up his left fist, before spinning around and slamming it into the female ANBU's face, knocking her out with ease. "There, I dropped her." He said, watching as the woman flew through the air and experienced a vicious landing that probably shattered a few bones.

Naruto didn't take that very well, he jumped forward and swung his sword downwards with all his might, catching Hito with his back turned.

Hito sidestepped at the last second, just avoiding a fatal blow. However even with his quick reaction, he still lost his arm to Naruto's blade.

Naruto smirked. 'This guy isn't so tough.' Naruto watched the arm tumble through the air. "I'll finish this guy off in no time, Zabuza-sensei! Then we can go back inside and finish the Kage off!"

Zabuza turned to the Demon Brothers. "Shin! Shinji! Go and grab Haku. Once you have him take the escape route that we discussed yesterday. Make sure that you do not engage that guy while you do all of this. Just run away as fast as you can!"

The two brothers nodded and dashed towards Haku's position. The first one picked him up, and both rushed off to the east, running on top of the Tower's moat as if it was a sidewalk.

Naruto watched this spectacle with obvious confusion on his face. 'Why is Zabuza so insistent on us escaping now? I could kill this guy with my hands tied behind my back.' He looked at Hito's severed arm again. 'I was able to take away his ability to perform jutsus. In addition, his taijutsu should be useless now unless he fights with a leg style. He's no longer a threat.' Naruto lifted his sword and shoved it into its sheath. He raised his right hand in front of his face with his fingers forming half of a seal. "I'm going to finish you off in style." Naruto declared to his opponent. He disappeared using one of Zabuza's signature disappearing techniques.

When Naruto reappeared behind Hitode, he was all set to take him out with a horizontal slice, but just as he landed on the ground behind Hito, his face met with the guy's left fist. The fist was attached to the arm that Naruto had removed from Hito three seconds earlier, and the arm had somehow stretched to several times its former length. Blood exploded from Naruto's nose as he was sent flying by this violent attack.

Hitode allowed his left arm to fall to the ground, since it was now ten feet long. "Zabuza already showed me that move when we fought, Naruto. Attacks like that won't work on me." He raised his fingers in front of his face and muttered, "Kai!". When Hitode dispelled his jutsu, his stretched out arm burst into water, leaving his real arm attached to his body. The severed arm that was lying on the ground also burst into water.

Naruto's grip on his sword dissolved and the blade broke out of his hand, flipping through the air and clanging against the ground several feet away from its owner, as his back slammed into the earth. Naruto felt like all the life had been drained from his body by that punch. None of his muscles were working anymore. 'That guy's strength is unreal. No one, not even Zabuza, has ever hit me this hard. And he did it with the arm that I had cut off.' Naruto eyed the puddle of water where the original arm had landed. 'Now I know why Zabuza wants to leave so badly. Anyone who can regenerate that fast after an injury can't be defeated by physical attacks.' Naruto struggled with all of his might to turn his head towards his sword. 'Our swords are the only weapon that me and Zabuza rely on. If our enemy can't be hurt by them, then there's no way that we can win.'

Hitode started to flex his new arm. "Now you know why I was named 'Starfish'. A starfish is an animal that can regenerate so well from injury, that even if one of its five limbs is cut off it can regenerate its body completely. In fact, a starfish can regenerate so well that even the severed limb becomes a new body. Watch as I demonstrate." Hito did a string of handseals ending with the ram.

Naruto turned his head the other way, only to see that Hitode could create bunshin from lost limbs. 'Shit! This definitely isn't good.'

"See, the arm you cut off has become a new soldier under my control. And, in case you were wondering, he can perform jutsus since he has just as much chakra as me. In fact, the only difference between us is the act that he is lacking a brain, which I can compensate for by giving him orders." Hitode pointed to the east. "Go chase after Haku, and bring him back here, alive."

The "arm" bunshin dashed off in that direction, following the Demon Brothers.

Hitode slowly approached the fallen Naruto, cracking his fingers as he walked. "And now to finish you off." He raised his foot, lifting it over Naruto's head. He started to press his sandal into Naruto's face. "Any last words?"

* * *

That's all for right now folks! I'll update again whenever this site lets me, since I've been having some trouble with the document manager. 

By the way, I overhauled the first chapter, making it the final chapter from my original story to be improved. It's way more developed than it was before, with details explaining several aspects of my plot that were left up to the imagination before. Check it out if you want, especially if you felt that my first chapter was lacking. Peace!


	8. Chapter 8: Yvan Eht Nioj!

Disclaimer: I'm trying to arrange a trade with Kishimoto, my ultra-expensive PS3 for Naruto. Until he agrees to the transaction, I still won't own Naruto, or Terminator 2 for that manner.

This chapter goes out to Ashark, who gave me the best reviews (sniffle, sniffle), that I've ever gotten. I like my reviewers to be as critical as possible, because it helps me to keep my story going in the direction that my fans want, instead of hopelessly shuffling it along in the obvious direction, with cliché and overused twists and plot ideas that have been used in tons of fics, movies, etc. in the past. Originality is the only thing that I strive for in everything that I do, so if it isn't too much trouble, I would like my reviewers to point out whatever they are not happy with. But don't be a jerk about it, because I am not scared to send replies to any flames I get.

Well, that's all I have to say about that. Let's continue the story.

_Hitode slowly approached the fallen Naruto, cracking his fingers as he walked. "And now to finish you off." He raised his foot, lifting it over Naruto's head. He started to press his sandal into Naruto's face. "Any last words?"_

Without Uzumaki Ch. 8:

Naruto felt his head being ground into the earth, but he had nothing to say. He silently watched as Hito removed his foot from his face and lifted his sandal into the air. Once Naruto had seen that the foot had gone up as high as it would, he closed his eyes and braced himself for impact.

"Well, if you're not going to say anything, then you must have no regrets." Hito said. "Prepare yourself." Naruto heard a loud smack just as Hito finished his sentence. He opened his eyes to see what had happened, and saw Zabuza standing over him, with the position of his sword and arm signifying that he had just swung his weapon into Hito, using the blunt side not the blade.

Hito stumbled sideways clutching his chin, putting him out of range to attack Naruto any further. He ducked a second attack from Zabuza, which was a horizontal slash, and then jumped to the side, out of the way of another sword slash.

Hito knocked Zabuza's sword to the side by kicking it with his heel, and dashed in before delivering a quick jab to Zabuza. He followed that up with a short uppercut, which staggered Zabuza. Then, he cocked back for a right hook, and threw the punch, but Zabuza leaned backwards so that the attack sailed over his face.

From Naruto's position on the ground, he watched as Zabuza jumped backwards from Hito, careful to keep his foe within his sword's range. Zabuza stuck his arm out behind himself, and let go of his sword. Naruto could see that the sword was somehow floating in mid-air, only inches away from the palm of Zabuza's hand. Zabuza assumed his signature fighting stance with the sword still hovering in mid-air, forming a half-handseal in front of his face.

'I've never seen this move before. Is this one of the silent killing techniques?' Naruto thought.

At this point, Hito combined his amazing ability to stretch his limbs with a front thrust kick to attack Zabuza.

Zabuza caught the kick with his right hand, leaving his sword still hovering in his left, however the 'stretch kick' pushed him backwards, out of his sword's range.

Hito muttered "Kai" and his leg burst into water right in Zabuza's hand. Hito took a more relaxed stance, now that he was no where near close enough for Zabuza to attack. He rubbed his chin gingerly, as if it was paining him. "You certainly do learn fast, Zabuza. I didn't expect you to figure out that cuts and scrapes don't hurt me, but blunt objects do." Hito snapped his chin into place, before raising his arms in front of his face, and raising his left knee inches off of the ground. This type of stance was well-suited for kickboxers, but Hito gave no indication that he was a master of any taijutsu style. "Make your move, Zabuza." Hito said, watching his opponent with intense eyes.

Zabuza smirked beneath his mask. 'Giving me this much space is a mistake he will deeply regret very soon.' He entered his silent-killing stance again, but this time he actually molded chakra using the handseal in front of his face. His sword, that was still hovering in the air, slowly began spinning at a very slow speed, like the second hand on the clock.

Hito kept his eyes on Zabuza, daring him to try whatever technique he was planning.

Naruto almost thought that he heard Zabuza whisper something beneath his breath. It sounded like, 'buzzsaw'. Slowly, mist began to fill the air, hiding Zabuza from view. Naruto knew, from his own training in Zabuza's style, that the giant could be anywhere now, silently stalking his opponent until he found just the right moment. That's why it didn't surprise him when the mist cleared and Zabuza was no where in sight.

Hito spun on his heel, just as Zabuza reappeared behind him, and threw a violent roundhouse kick at Zabuza's midsection. In what can only be described as a feat of impossible agility and flexibility, Zabuza managed to crouch so deeply towards the ground that he was able to move under the kick, even while holding his left hand behind him with the palm pointed straight up so that his sword wouldn't touch the ground.

Naruto looked at Zabuza's left palm and noted that the sword was spinning rapidly just inches away from it like a buzzsaw.

This is when things got brutal. Hito had put way too much force behind that kick, so he couldn't stop himself from spinning until his back was facing Zabuza. Zabuza stabbed his 'buzzsaw' right into Hito's torso, resulting in what should have been a very violent spectacle.

As Hito's midsection was being sawed to pieces, the expression on his face didn't match the pain he should have been feeling. At first, Naruto thought that he just looked extremely pissed off. Hitode balled up his right fist, but before he could do anything with it, Zabuza's sword/ buzzsaw chopped it off. This left Hito standing straight up with one arm while Zabuza worked a saw through his chest.

Naruto noticed something very wrong with Hito at this point, he wasn't bleeding at all. Instead, what appeared to be gallons and gallons of water were being thrown into the air as his chest was being carved through. At the same time, it didn't seem like Hito was taking any damage from the assault. His chest seemed to be regenerating just as fast as it was damaged. Naruto tried to force himself to his feet, thinking that maybe he needed to help Zabuza out before Hito broke free of this jutsu.

Just as Naruto determined that Zabuza wasn't doing any damage, the situation changed. Hito's expression changed from pissed off to extremely desperate, as his mouth filled up with some kind of liquid. Naruto was banking on blood, but he knew better than to bet on this sort of thing. Naruto heard a short noise that sounded like a tomato getting chopped by a kitchen knife, and blood tumbled through the air, splattering onto the ground suprisingly close to Naruto. 'So he does bleed.' Naruto thought.

Hito spit out what looked and smelled like sea foam, dropping to one knee as Zabuza continued to buzzsaw him to death. He looked like he was dying, but just as he came as close as possible to falling to the ground, it seemed as if he caught a second wind. Naruto heard an extremely loud clanging noise as Hito regrew his right arm and grabbed Zabuza's sword by the blade, stopping the buzzsaw attack. He elbowed Zabuza, as he stood back up, without releasing the sword from his grip. Then, with his left hand, he formed a semi-handseal. His right arm grew three times its length, submerging Zabuza's weapon into the ground. Then Hito took a page from the Terminator 2, and turned his arm into a sword, namely a massive, dark colored weapon with no cutting-edge that was covered in thin spines and started at his elbow. The way that the blade looked was oddly familiar to both Zabuza and Naruto, but neither could place where they've seen that sword before. One phrase did come to Naruto's mind, however, 'It doesn't cut, it grinds and tears.' Hito spun around and brought his sword arm down on Zabuza, but the jounin bounced the weapon to the side using a kunai. Then he ripped his sword back out of the ground and used the blunt side to knock Hito into the air.

Naruto watched as Hito flew to the side, and literally exploded into a shower of water in mid-air. Apparently, Zabuza's buzzsaw attack did do actual damage to Hito, and once he was hit that hard with a blunt object, his body seperated where Zabuza had been cutting him.

Naruto tried to congratulate Zabuza on his victory, reciting the words, "Wow, Zabuza-sensei, that attack of yours was awesome!" in his head, but all of his energy was spent. He couldn't say a word because his mouth felt paralyzed, almost as if he had chakra exhaustion.

Zabuza was absolutely spent after performing that jutsu of his, so he began to rest on his knees, taking deep breaths to replenish his strength. He glanced over at where Hito had fallen, where there was a large puddle of water on the ground. He sighed, before putting his giant sword in its sheath. Then, he stumbled towards Naruto, and picked up his student's sword on the way there.

When he reached Naruto, he untied the boy's sheath from his back and retied it to his own waist. Then he sheathed Naruto's sword into it. Zabuza looked down at Naruto, and reached downwards, peering under Naruto's eyelids and checking several aspects of the boy's face. "Looks like he absorbed all of your chakra with his attack." Zabuza muttered.

Naruto couldn't talk, but he still managed to put an expression onto his face that showed Zabuza that he didn't understand what he said at all.

"That other kid, the one who calls himself 'Starfish', is a chakra absorber. You see a lot of them these days, people who steal chakra while they attack. You should make sure to avoid his attacks next time. That punch he hit you with was only a glancing blow. Imagine how bad you'd feel if you took one of his roundhouse kicks." To add impact to his statement, Zabuza rubbed a bruise on his ribs that he had since he had emerged from the Kage's Tower.

'Next time' was the only part of that sentence that Naruto caught. He glanced over at the puddle formally known as Hitode again, and to his utter dismay, it was staring back at him with just one eye, Hito's orange one. Naruto would have shuddered if he could.

Zabuza caught Naruto's glance and looked over at Hitode as well. "Guess that's our cue to leave." was all he said before he hoisted Naruto onto his shoulder and made a dash for the crowd of the Mizukage's soldiers and the Kaguya that were in between them and the village's exit.

Hito watched the pair leave, but he wasn't anywhere near regenerated enough to chase after them. 'Go ahead and run Zabuza. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.' Hito wished that his mouth was still intact, so he could smirk evilly after he had that thought.

Just as Zabuza was nearing the last fifteen members of the Mizukage's army, two at the back noticed his approach. "Hey, is that Zabuza?" One of them asked.

"I don't know." Another one replied. "Hey, is that you Zabuza!" he said towards the large swordsman.

Instead of answering the question, Zabuza shoved the guy to the side. He planted his elbow into the other guy's face, and continued to knock person after person aside as he made his way towards the bridge that led to the town square. He broke through the crowd of ninja seconds later, but he stopped just as he neared the bridge over the moat between the Mizukage's Tower and the rest of Kiri. He turned around and took one, final look at the Mizukage's Tower. 'I will see you again, Keito, and next time no one will be able to protect you from me.' he thought. As Zabuza was staring at the Tower, he couldn't help but peer downwards when he heard a loud cry from in front of him. Zabuza noticed that the entire crowd of ninja was starting to converge on one person. She appeared to be the last Kaguya left, and only looked about Haku's age.

There was at least ten ninja around the Kaguya, and all of them had their weapons drawn. Umbrellas, kunai, and even a couple sickles were all pointed at the girl's neck. The ninja sneered evilly at the girl who they would certainly be killing in a few seconds.

Zabuza chuckled to himself. "Those Kaguya sure served their purpose well. They lasted longer than anyone would have expected, and even after all of my business has concluded there is still one left." He began turning around to leave this area, but then he caught the look on the Kaguya's face. Those pained eyes, the way she was shielding herself with her hands. Zabuza realized that unlike the rest of the Kaguya, this kid didn't come here ready to die. He glanced over at the battlefield, and noted the way that the other Kaguya fell, with bone swords in hand, cursing Mist-village and the Mizukage even until their last breaths. That was the dignified way to go. This girl on the other hand...

Zabuza saw that the girl was talking to her executioners. He was able to read her lips, even from such a great distance away, "Please don't kill me! I'll do anything, just spare me!"

"Damnit, kid!" Zabuza cursed to himself. "You're the last Kaguya. If you die this way, this is how your entire clan will be remembered." Zabuza put Naruto down and drew out his blade. 'I can't let the Kaguya fade away like this.'

Just as one of the ninja finally decided to finish the girl off, leaning in to kill her with his kunai, Zabuza suddenly appeared between them. With a single, giant swing of his weapon, Zabuza killed five ninja in one, fell swoop. The rest of the Mizukage's ninja scattered, seeing how easily that Zabuza could destroy them.

Zabuza turned his gaze on the final Kaguya. The girl looked badly wounded, with blood trailing down her useless left arm and hundreds of small cuts and gashes all over her body. She must have been in the thick of this battle to carry that many wounds. The Kaguya looked up at her saviour, before dropping onto her knees and bowing to Zabuza. "Thank you. If it wasn't for you, I..."

Zabuza grabbed the kid by her shoulders and forced her onto her feet. "What the hell are you doing? You're ancestors must be rolling in their graves, seeing you act in such a pitiful manner. Do you even know what pride is?"

The kid scratched her head, through the straight, black hair that covered it. She raised the black dots that Kaguya considered eyebrows, appearing completely clueless to what Zabuza said. "Pride?"

"That's right." Zabuza said. "Pride. Isn't that why you came out here and fought all of these enemies? Isn't that what all of your brethren died for? They wanted to show this village that they weren't just garbage that could be thrown away once they were no longer needed. They were trying to prove that their advanced bloodline was just as powerful now as it was during the Great War, during which the Kaguya defended Water Country with their lives. Isn't that what you were fighting for as well?"

The girl still looked dumbstruck. "Not really. They told me that if I didn't fight, they'd kill me, so I had to fight." She said, gesturing towards the pile of dead Kaguya on the ground. "But seeing as how I'm the only one left, I guess that pride of theirs isn't that useful at all. At least if you're planning on staying alive." She giggled at the end of her sentence, laughing at some hidden joke that Zabuza didn't catch.

Zabuza sighed, putting his sword away. "I guess so. What's your name, kid?"

She pointed at herself, smiling. "My name is Mao."

Zabuza pulled out a map of the village from his pocket. He traced lines on it, and made an X on a point outside the village. He finished his outline of the village by drawing several lines that led to the X, and then circling it in red.

"What are you doing, er, uh..."

"Zabuza." The man said, finishing the girl's sentence. He handed Mao the map that he had just been working on. "You look very injured." he stated. "In your condition, it would be better if you avoid any additional battles. Chances are, I'm going to see a scrap or two before I make it out of the village, so we should split ways for now. Follow that map and it will take you to secret tunnels leading out of the village. I doubt you'll run into any fighting if you follow that route." Zabuza put away his pen. "Get going, kid."

The girl nodded, and slowly walked away, following the directions on the map to the letter. She turned around once she reached the middle of the bridge. "I'll see you soon, Zabuza-sama." She said, waving him goodbye. Then she started walking away again.

Zabuza scratched his head, 'I can't figure that kid out at all. Oh well.' He stepped back over to Naruto, who had been watching the entire spectacle. Fortunately, the boy was still paralyzed so he was unable to comment. Zabuza lifted Naruto back up onto his shoulder, and continued his journey out of the village.

... Fifteen Minutes Later...

Zabuza carried Naruto through the entire village of Kirikagure in just that much time. His ninja sprint wasn't heralded as the fastest in Water Country for nothing. He rounded the last corner he'd have to step around before leaving the village. In front of him, past at least fifty, tall buildings, were the gates leading out of Kiri. Zabuza doubled his speed, rapidly approaching the gates. Just as he neared the edge of the twentieth building, Zabuza felt a series of low rumbles in the ground, followed by an extremely high-pitched, screeching noise that was exactly like nails being dragged against a chalkboard. He stopped on a dime, right at the edge of a four-way intersection, as a massive torrent of water crossed the street in front of him, traveling from his left to his right. 'How did a tsunami make it this far into the village?' he thought. A shiny object fell out of the wave and cut Zabuza in the arm, leaving a deep gash. He jumped away from the tsunami to avoid further damage.

Zabuza watched on as the wave slowly died down, and saw that the wave had been filled with, what appeared to be, thousands of swords. The buildings that had been affected by the wave all looked like pin-cushions, with all of these swords sticking into them. "What the hell..." was all Zabuza had to say about that.

"Oy, Zabuza-kun!" A voice said from on top of one of the buildings. "Looks like my Bladed Tsunami technique caught you right before you finished escaping. How fortunate for me!" The man muttered "Kai" and dispelled his jutsu, causing all of the blades that littered the street to burst into water.

Zabuza looked up at the person who said all of that. It was the Mizukage, or at least it could have been. After all, the last time Zabuza ran into the Mizukage it was an imposter. "You're not that kid, henging into the Mizukage to piss me off, are you?" Zabuza said.

The Mizukage smiled, before drawing out a kunai. He slid it into his arm, causing blood to squirt out and tumble off of the roof, splattering into the ground below. "Hitode doesn't bleed." he stated.

Zabuza put Naruto down and drew out his sword. "So it is you." he started. "Then I guess that you've finally mustered up the courage to fight me."

The Mizukage chuckled. "Zabuza, Zabuza, Zabuza. If I had ever been interested in fighting you, I would have done it back in the tower instead of having a doppleganger do it for me. I have no interest in dueling with someone who is so far beneath me."

A vein started throbbing angrily in Zabuza's forehead. "Be...neath you?" he grumbled.

"Now don't get so angry, Zabuza-kun. At least not yet. I came out here because I wanted to explain something to you, that's all." the Mizukage said.

"Enough talking, Keito!" Zabuza said. "Fight me now and we'll see who's beneath who!"

The Mizukage frowned, "You know Zabuza-kun, I am sort of disappointed in you. I went through all of this effort, gave you so much to work with, and you still don't understand what you should be doing." The Mizukage looked into the sky, apparently reminiscing about a past event. "I still remember that day, thirteen years ago, when I killed your precious sensei so I could become Mizukage. I was even forced to peel the very hat that I am wearing right now off of his dead body, so that I could clean the blood off of it and wear it myself. Do you remember what you told me after that, only a few hours later? You said that..."

"I said that I would kill you! I told you that you would not get away with killing my master!" Zabuza said.

The Mizukage looked back down at Zabuza. "That's right. That's the unwritten promise that you gave me all of those years before. It's the promise that I've been holding you to for years now, that my life would be ended by your hands."

'He's been holding me to it?' Zabuza thought.

The Mizukage sighed, "I've never been the type of man who could settle for a normal existence. Becoming the Mizukage was always my dream, because I was sure that if that ever happened I could do something that everyone would remember, something that would turn me into a legend. But the more that I've thought about it, the more clear it has become to me that no matter how far I climb up the ladder, I'll never be able to accomplish something worth remembering. Just look at all the Kages that proceeded me. The First Mizukage helped to end the age of wars between the five great nations along with the First Hokage, he even sent his younger brother to Konoha so he could become the Second Hokage. The Second Mizukage single-handedly defeated the Sanbi no Isonade and sealed him into a sword, making Water Country the only nation that hasn't seen a demon attack in over fifty years. The Third Mizukage brought the ancient silent-killing art back into existence, teaching it to you, as well as a few other members of the village's ANBU squad. So far, the only thing that anyone can compliment me on is leading the most uneventful, boring period in this village's entire existence. People don't even call it Blood Mist Village anymore. I guess that I'm a failure in that respect." The Mizukage said.

"Is there a point to this speech, or do you just like to hear yourself talk?" Zabuza said.

"I've decided that being killed by the next Kage is something I'm willing to be remembered for." The Mizukage admitted. "I really believed that you were strong enough to kill me, but as years passed following your promise I started to think that maybe we are on completely different levels power-wise. That's when I got a message from the Hokage that said he wanted us to take Naruto off of his hands. I was struck with inspiration at this point, and came up with a brilliant plan. If you couldn't kill me by yourself, I'd give you some helpers to give you a better edge in our ensuing fight. First, I put Naruto in your care, then I told you where to find Haku, and I let you retain your position as ANBU captain even though it would have been so easy to remove you from it. You had all of these people under your control, but you still attacked me alone, during the day, and while announcing your presence before you even entered the tower. That's what told me that all of this was completely hopeless. You are far too convinced that your powers measure up to mine, so you didn't even consider trying to overwhelm me with those soldiers I gave you."

The Mizukage leapt off of the building, falling almost twenty stories, but he still managed to land both gracefully and silently on the ground. He stood up from his cat-like landing stance, and looked Zabuza right in the eye. "You know, I was watching your fight with Hitode. I noticed a huge flaw in your style that prevents you from ever being able to kill me." He took several steps towards Zabuza. "You use a silent-killing style that emphasizes a combination of speed and absolute silence. The initial strike in the style cuts the foe's vital points while the user remains completely undetectable to the ears and eyes of the opponent. However, it's damn near impossible to silently assassinate someone if you're lugging a sword that huge around. Even if you get an advantage over your opponent and end up behind them, anyone jounin level or higher will be able to react during the one and one-half second interval before you finish swinging your blade. In other words, that sword of yours and the silent-killing arts are completely incompatible. You're either going to have to switch weapons or switch styles if you want to beat me."

Zabuza couldn't believe what he was hearing, 'He thinks that there's a flaw in my style? My style's perfect. It's never failed me before.' He looked at the Kage's serious expression. 'He must believe in that assumption he just made, because he isn't smirking like he normally does after one of his jokes.'

"Zabuza-san!" Two voices yelled from above. Zabuza looked up to see that the Demon Brothers had jumped off of one of the buildings, landing on the ground next to him. They both had very rough landings, especialy the one that was still carrying Haku, who had yet to wake up.

"What are the two of you doing here?" Zabuza asked. "You should be miles out of the village by now."

"About that." one of the brothers said. The other one pointed towards the roof of a building, where Hito was now jumping down after them. He landed on the opposite side of the brothers and Zabuza than where the Mizukage was. "He's been chasing us ever since you sent us away. We couldn't shake him, and if we went to the rendezvous point with him on our tail, he'd know where our base of operations is."

"I've been waiting for the two of you forever." The Mizukage said. "Now that you've brought Haku here, I will be taking him."

"What do you want with Haku?" Zabuza asked.

"Well, we both already understand that there's no way that you'll ever be killing me, so it's time for me to start grooming your replacement. I think that Haku's ice-based bloodline would be a good counter for my techniques, what do you think?" The Mizukage said.

Zabuza aimed his sword at the Kage's throat. "There's no way that you'll be getting your hands on Haku!"

The Mizukage said "Oh?", while snapping his fingers. Suddenly eleven mounds of water started to rise from the ground in a circle around Zabuza, Naruto, the Demon Brothers, and Haku. Each one turned into an exact replica of Hitode. The Mizukage started to count on his fingers, "Let's see, you cut Hito into eleven pieces, so eleven clones were formed, including the one that contains his brain. Raise your hand, the real Hitode!"

One of the clones behind Zabuza raised his arm. "I'm right over here!"

The Mizukage, who was now standing behind a group of Hito clones, did a string of hand-seals. "Look alive, Zabuza-kun. This is where you show me if my assumptions about you were wrong." The Mizukage finished his seal-string with the dragon. "Water Style: Bladed Tsunami Technique."

Several of the Hito-clones stepped away from each other, allowing Zabuza to see that the head of an enormous Dragon was coming out of the wall to the left of him, with its mouth pulled into a snarl. The Mizukage jumped on top of the head, "Meet my pet dragon, Kouryou." He looked down at the dragon. "Say hi to Zabuza, Kouryou." The dragon opened its mouth, revealing that inside was a row of very sharp looking fangs, as well as a pool of water.

"Behind me!" Zabuza said. The brothers complied, moving directly behind the giant.

The Mizukage snickered. "Are you sure that you should do that, Zabuza? I'm sure that you and those twins could escape if you put down the kids..."

Zabuza started to levitate his sword in the palm of his hand, 'I was told never to use this jutsu twice in one day.' he remembered.

"Very well." The Mizukage said.

All of the Hito clones except for one burst into water, just as the Kage commenced his attack. The dragon belched out a torrent of water, forming a beam of the stuff that flew directly at Zabuza. Zabuza begun to rapidly spin his sword using his chakra, using the buzzsaw for defense this time, rather than attack.

As the water flew towards Zabuza, the Mizukage shifted his hands from the dragon seal to the boar. In mid-air, only a few feet away from Zabuza, about half of the water that Kouryou was spitting out transformed into swords, translucent blades that appeared to be made out of the same marble that formed the Kage's Tower.

When the beam and the saw collided, gallons of water and swords were thrown into the air. The noise created by the two attacks was ear-shattering, after all each time one of the hundreds of swords spit by the dragon hit Zabuza's sword, it created a very loud clanging noise. Before long, Zabuza felt pain shoot through his right arm.

'Damn it, how could I be cramping up at a time like this.' Zabuza thought. The rotation of the sword slowed down ever-so slightly, and one of Kouryou's swords flew into Zabuza's shoulder, leaving a deep wound.

The Mizukage laughed, "Don't slow down now, Zabuza-kun, those swords certainly won't." He snapped his fingers and the dragon spat out swords and water at an even faster rate.

Zabuza forced his sword to spin faster, blocking this wave of swords with all that he had. He felt a wave of force travel up his arm as one of the swords collided into his own at a very bad angle. He lost control of his blade and it tumbled to the side, leaving Zabuza completely vulnerable.

Fortunately, just as Zabuza lost control, the Mizukage stopped his attack. Only three swords pierced Zabuza's torso, causing him to fall to the ground. He looked up at the Mizukage, "Why..."

"Did I stop my attack, when I could have easily killed you?" The Mizukage finished. The smile didn't leave his face, "I don't want to watch you die, Zabuza-kun." He made a slight gesture to his left. "My only goal is that over there."

Zabuza turned his head, only to see that Haku was now in the arms of Hitode, still sleeping from the effects of whatever poison he had been hit with. "It was hard to grab this kid with all of those damn swords flying at me." Hito said. "So it was a good thing that Zabuza was stopping some of them. It gave me all the time I needed to snatch Haku away, after knocking those two out of course." Hito gestured towards the Demon Brothers, who were both unconscious on the ground.

The Mizukage jumped off of the head of Kouryou, landing on top of a building. "Well Zabuza-kun, it's been fun but I think it is time that me and Hito leave." He started to do some handseals, which Zabuza recognized as the ones for a very powerful teleportation jutsu. With it, the Kage could easily transport himself, Hito, and Haku to any place in the village. Just as the Mizukage was nearing the final seal, a large gust of wind started to blow over the top of the building he was on, causing his robes to flow wildly. The Mizukage shielded his face from some dust that blew towards it with his hands, effectively ending his jutsu.

The Mizukage rose his hands back into position so he could finish his jutsu, but then he felt metal being pressed against his neck, sending chills up his spine. He could tell from the texture that it wasn't a kunai or a shuriken, it felt more like a needle. He slightly adjusted his head, so that he could look at the person behind him. "I guess that I got a little too careless," he said, "letting this woman sneak up behind me. Although I must admit that she certainly is quieter than Zabuza," The Kage turned his head a little further, and looked into the person's eyes. "And beautiful as well. Say, would you consider going out on a date with your Kage?"

"Turn your head straight forward, and don't say anything else. I'll kill you if I have to." the woman said, forcing the Kage to comply by digging the neede a little deeper into his neck.

Hito's eyes grew wide when he realized who it was. "No way. I drained all of her chakra, there's no way that she could be standing. She should still be lying right where I left her."

The blue-haired woman drew out a syringe that was filled with a blue liquid from her ANBU vest, being careful not to move the needle in her left hand away from the Mizukage's neck. "This needle is a very concentrated chakra supplement. A single injection from this needle, administered by a medical specialist like me, can restore a person's chakra supply in seconds." She pocketed that needle and pulled out a green one. "This one turns a person invisible for fifteen seconds." She put that one away as well. "And the one that I have aimed at the Kage's neck will kill a man instantly if it so much as touches their bloodstream."

* * *

The end... 

Syke! Review please, and tell me what you think about this chapter.

That whole paragraph about the flaw in Zabuza's style is based off of my observations during his fight with Kakashi in the anime. I am a firm believer that Zabuza could have easily killed Tazuna and defeated Kakashi if he didn't carry that big-ass sword around. Remember when he teleported inches away from Tazuna, and was unable to kill him before Kakashi dashed over ten feet and stopped him? It takes way too long to swing that sword, and that's why Zabuza didn't win.

By the way, I visited the forums and went on one by kopycatkakashi called "Naruto Fanfiction Help". Under that tab was a topic entitled, "The Nine-tailed Beasts" by Lord of the Blades. I have accepted his or her descriptions of what type of animal each beast will be as fact, so that is where I got the name "Sanbi no Isonade" from. You might want to visit that topic yourself, since I found the information in it very interesting.


	9. Chapter 9: The Kyubi's Roar

Disclaimer: Do I really have to do this again? (Beansmoker sighs) I still don't own Naruto, got it?

Last chapter I got a couple of reviews asking about Kimimaro, so I guess that I'll answer them here. Kimimaro is still alive in this fic, but he wasn't mentioned yet because in the canon I'm pretty sure that he wasn't present when the Kaguya attacked Kirigakure, since all of the bodies of his brethren were being piled up at the same time that he met Orochimaru for the first time. As far as this fic is concerned, he is miles away from the village now, and has already hopped on Orochimaru's bandwagon.

Sorry that it took so long to write this chapter but, at more than 11,000 words, its three times longer than my preferred chapter length. I hope that makes up for el lateness. I strongly suggest that you bring something to snack on with you when you read this, because you might want to take an intermission when you get halfway through. (The halfway mark is at the second break in the page, marked with a row of x's) Here goes nothing...

_The blue-haired woman drew out a syringe that was filled with a blue liquid from her anbu vest, being careful not to move the needle in her left hand away from the Mizukage's neck. "This needle is a very concentrated chakra supplement. A single injection from this needle, administered by a medical specialist like me, can restore a person's chakra supply in seconds." She pocketed that needle and pulled out a green one. "This one turns a person invisible for fifteen seconds." She put that one away as well. "And the one that I have aimed at the Kage's neck will kill a man instantly if it so much as touches their bloodstream." _

Without Uzumaki Chapter 9:

"You know woman," The Mizukage started, with the Anbu's needle still aimed at his jugular, "I'm not afraid of dying."

The anbu had the Mizukage's arm in a shoulderlock, the type of hold that people use to place someone into handcuffs, so she forced his elbow upwards, stretching out the ligaments in his shoulder until it nearly broke. "Do you want me to kill you?" she said, scowling.

The Mizukage laughed, apparently oblivious to whatever pain he was feeling. "You obviously don't know that I've been waiting for Zabuza to kill me for thirteen years now. I won't bore you with the details, just know that that needle you have pointed at my neck doesn't scare me even a little bit. You can stab me all you want. I won't mind." For some reason, the Mizukage found that funny, so he started to laugh almost maniacally. "Hito!" He yelled loud enough for his lackey on the street to hear. "At least make things fair!"

Hitode dropped Haku onto the ground and dashed over to Zabuza, who was still unable to move due to the three swords sticking out of his chest. Hito grabbed two of them by their handles, threatening to use them to perform a coup d'etat on Zabuza. He twisted them around a bit, garnering a painful howl from his hostage. "Hey woman!" Hito screamed to the anbu. "If you kill the Mizukage, I'll kill Zabuza!"

"Shit." The female anbu cursed. Her grip on the needle in her right hand tightened, as she debated what to do. "What the hell are you trying to pull, bastard!" she said to the Kage.

The Kage turned his head slightly, just glancing at the person behind him out of the corner of his eye. "Just making things a little even. I'm willing to bet that despite all of these threats you keep making, you won't harm a single hair on my head if Zabuza's life is at stake."

"Of course I'll..." The anbu started.

The Mizukage cut her off, "How many years ago was it, when Naruto was originally delivered to this village? Nine, Ten, or was it Eleven? I'm not exactly sure."

"What does that have to do with anything?" she said.

"I distinctly remember that even though I ordered Zabuza to deliver the boy to me himself, it was you who carried baby Naruto into my office in the Tower, all those years ago. Back then, you were a medical-ninja in the Anbu squad who worked just under Zabuza. You specifically asked for the position, you weren't forced in due to a lack of medic-nins, and when I agreed to your request I told you that you were overqualified for the position." The Mizukage said. "You've remained a medical ninja in Zabuza's squad for at least ten years, and resisted promotion three times so far, when I tried to give you Zabuza's rank as Anbu captain so I could place him into my personal guard." The Mizukage said.

The women clenched her teeth, showing signs that she was becoming frustrated with this whole situation. 'What's he getting at?'

Hito, on the other hand, was still standing over Zabuza, with control over three blades sticking into the swordsmen's chest. "What are they doing up there?" he complained to himself. "Are they going to make me stand here all day?"

"When I first became Mizukage," He began, ",the first thing I did was review a list of every ninja in their village, that listed their rank, talents, any bloodline limits or special abilities, training, etc. It took three weeks to sift through that boring list of ninja, and when I was done, there was only two names that I found even remotely interesting. The first one was Momoichi Zabuza. According to the notes that the previous Kage had taken, Zabuza was, "One of my most promising students, who earned the right to be trained by me by defeating over one-hundred students at the academy, with no knowledge of ninjitsu himself. He is now a master of every technique in the silent-killing style, minus one. Judging by his quick progress so far, I am sure that he will become Mizukage someday..." Clearly, those notes were biased, but even so, Zabuza clearly stood out from amongst his peers." The Mizukage took a deep breath so that he could continue talking at this pace.

"The other name in the list that impressed me, was Shimizu Kaede" The Mizukage continued, "The description that he wrote for you was straight and to the point, obviously because you weren't the Third Mizukage's prized student like Zabuza. If I remember correctly, it read, "This ninja has been trained lightly in the silent-killing arts by my first student, Shimizu Kano. In addition to that, she has near perfect chakra control, perfect chakra molding, a large chakra capacity, great skill in taijutsu, (specifically in the department of submissions), talent for genjutsu, and can already use jounin-level water jutsus at the age of ten. Also, she posseses a special trait of the Shimizu clan that allows her body to reject any foreign matter that enters her bloodstream, effectively making her immune to any negative effects from poisons, drugs, diseases, etc. She is the first person in the clan to come up with the idea of turning her ability into a weapon. She does this by carrying extremely dangerous drugs on her person that would kill anyone outside of her clan instantly. She demonstrated this power to me by injecting snake venom directly into her neck with a syringe. Her body showed no sign of weakening even after taking four times the amount of poison that a person should be able to withstand, and she told me after she was finished that absorbing that much poison meant that anyone who came into contact with her would certainly die, because the venom would be present in her sweat..."

"What's with all of this history?" The woman said, stopping the Mizukage's speech. "When are you going to make a point?"

The Mizukage sighed, "When I first read those documents, I assumed that you were stronger than Zabuza, since your areas of expertise spanned all three branches of ninjitsu, and you had a bloodline. I thought it would be fun to see Zabuza be humiliated by a girl, so I put the two of you in the same Anbu squad. You were supposed to rise through the ranks faster than Zabuza, outdo him in missions, make him feel weak. That's what was supposed to happen, but I soon found out that putting you on a squad with him was a mistake." The Kage snickered. "As soon as I brought you in contact with Zabuza, your perfect mission completion record went to hell, your overall skill as a ninja dropped steadily, it's like you became another person."

"It reminds me of an article I read a few days back, in a magazine about the life of a ninja. It says that due to the life and death battles that Ninja must fight in constantly, most of the ninja's life is spent recovering from injuries and training to reduce the chance of injury in future missions. Because of this, ninja have little time to pursue relationships with other people, especially non-ninja. This is especially hard on budding female-ninja, since they have a very high tendency to develop... crushes on other ninja that they work with."

The Mizukage felt Kaede's grip on the syringe aimed at his neck loosen, ever so slightly. He also felt the shoulderlock loosen, and he heard her take several short breaths. 'So, my assumption is right on the money.' "I believe that the reason for your horrible performance as a ninja over the last ten years, was due to the same reasons that cripple two out of every three female ninja alive. You developed a silly crush on Zabuza, and let that get in the way of your missions." He tested the holds on his shoulder, neck, etc. by making slight movements at those points. 'Her grip on my arm is too weak. This is my chance to break free.' "I'll even go as far as to say that you might have been screwing up on purpose. After all, it wouldn't do for you to upstage your crush or make him look bad by being a better ninja than him, isn't that right?" Without warning, the Mizukage wrenched his arm with all of his might, trying to pull it out of the Anbu's grip. However, Kaede resisted the Mizukage's attempt, maintaining her hold on his left arm. She forced the elbow up as far as it would go, until his shoulder snapped.

"Alright," She started, an insane grin covering her face, "so you figured out that I had a little crush on Zabuza when I was younger, it doesn't mean that I'm going to let you get away."

The Mizukage smiled back. "You _still_ have a little crush on Zabuza." he stated dryly.

Kaede's face contorted into a hateful grimace, as she brought the syringe in her right hand higher into the air, "Don't screw with me!" she screeched, before slamming the needle into the Kage's throat, squeezing the red liquid inside the needle into the man's neck. She released the Kage and allowed him to crumple onto the ground, completely motionless. Kaede released a single chuckle, "Bastard."

As Kaede stood above the Kage's lifeless body, she suddenly remembered a little something that she had been forgetting. She shifted her worried gaze towards Zabuza, who still had Hito standing over him, in the perfect position to get revenge for his fallen master. "Zabuza-sama!" she said loudly.

Hito was looking Kaede right in the eye when she looked down, nonchalantly leaning on one of the swords in Zabuza's chest. He maintained eye-contact with the Anbu for several seconds, before he reached out with his left hand and grabbed a sword.

'He's really going to do it!' Kaede realized. "Please don't!" she said.

Hito stuck one of his fingers in his ear, pretending like he couldn't hear, "What was that?"

"Don't kill Zabuza! I'll do whatever you want and..."

"Why would I want to kill Zabuza?" Hito asked, interrupting Kaede's plea. "I don't see any reason why I should..."

Kaede's mouth hung open for a few seconds, before she shook off the shock that she was feeling and started to laugh, 'I get it.' she thought, 'With the Kage dead, why would he need to kill Zabuza? There's no one holding him to it, he can just leave now if he wants to and no one can stop him.'

Hito started laughing as well, and the two of them laughed together for a good minute, before Hito continued speaking, "Yeah. Why would I need to kill Zabuza anyway? After all, the Mizukage's not dead. Just take a good look at him, your needle didn't break his skin."

Kaede turned to her right, only to see the Mizukage pulling himself to his feet. The needle that she stabbed into his neck lied on the ground, in pieces, as if it shattered when it touched the Mizukage. The woman took a close look at the spot where the needle went, and realized that it was covered in a thin layer of a stone that appeared similar to marble.

"I can't believe you actually tried to kill me." The Mizukage said while rubbing his neck, peeling off the marble. "Fortunately for me, my ability to turn water into stone applies to sweat as well." The Kage cracked his neck, and used his right hand to snap his left shoulder into place. He smirked, "You broke my shoulder, woman, but don't think that this means that I won't be able to kill you." He peered towards the street below, first at Hito and Zabuza, then a little further down, where his summon's head was still attached to a building. "Come here, Kouryou!"

The dragon roared in answer, before shooting out of the building that it was in, flying through the street like a bullet, and revealing just how huge it was. It's body was so long that even when its head broke into the base of the building that the Kage and Kaede were standing on, its rear legs still hadn't left the first building. The ground under Kaede's and the Kage's feet started to rumble violently, signifying that the dragon was about to burst through.

The Kage jumped straight up, and Kaede backwards, both avoiding Kouryou's head as it broke through the roof, sending rubble flying every which way. The Kage landed on the head of the dragon, and Kaede landed within inches of the corner of the building. She nearly lost her balance and fell off, but she waved her arms rapildy to regain it.

One piece of the rubble that the dragon kicked up flew through the sky, falling off of the building and towards the street. Naruto, who had been sleeping up until this point, was hit in the face, and just like that he woke up. Naruto found himself unable to rub his head, even though it hurt badly. He found that only his eyes responded when he gave his body a command, so he used them to observe his surroundings and saw that everyone on his side, besides the Anbu, were all unconscious. 'What's going on?' he thought to himself, before noticing that there was a battle going on on the roof of one of the buildings around him.

"Looks like the tables have turned, woman." The Mizukage said. "I'm only going to give you this offer one time. Give up now, because if you continue fighting I will definitely end up killing you."

Kaede reached into her vest and pulled out a syringe that was filled with the red poison used for killing. "No way." she said. This time, instead of brandishing the needle like a weapon, she stabbed herself in the neck with it. "Don't think that I only have one way of getting the poison into you." She raised her fingernails so that the Kage could see them. They changed from the pink of unpainted nails, to a dark red. "Poison can't harm me, remember? So all I have to do is pump myself with enough of it, and I can turn myself into a biological weapon."

The Mizukage frowned. "Fine. We'll do this your way." He pointed at the ground which was at Kaede's feet. "Give her a warning shot, Kouryou!" The dragon barked loudly, before spitting out a blast of water at Kaede, forcing her to jump to the side. After that, the dragon clenched its teeth, causing water to spray out of its mouth over a wider area, like a sprinkler.

Kaede was completely drenched by the attack, but she didn't seem to be harmed further than that.

"Kouryou, underground!" The Kage jumped off of the dragon's head, and the beast resubmerged itself into the ground, leaving a gaping hole in its wake. "I'll end this now." The Kage said.

Kaede felt the ground at her feet start to tremble, so she moved forward, just as Kouryou rose out of the ground where she had been standing. It unleashed a beam of water, forcing Kaede to run towards the Mizukage at full sprint to stay ahead of the blast. When Kaede stopped looking at the dragon, and turned towards her front, she saw that the Mizukage was running towards her as well.

When the two met, Kaede lunged forward, trying to slash the Mizukage with her nails, but the man disappeared just as her attack was about to hit. On a side note, Kouryou stopped spraying water at this point.

"You're ten years too young to beat me." The Kage's voice echoed through the air, but the man himself was no where in sight. "I know jutsus that you can never imagine. Like this one, that one of my spies from Leaf Village showed me."

Pain shot through Kaede's mouth as she felt the Kage's boot slam into her chin . She was sent flying straight up into the air, and just as she reached the annex of her trip, she felt the Kage's index and middle fingers being pressed into her back, in what felt like a handseal.

"This one is a Fire Country favorite, the Dancing Leaf Shadow, or something like that. I'm sticking to your shadow using my chakra." The Kage explained. "Leaf-nin normally follow this one with some taijutsu moves, but that's never been my speciality, so let's try out something else."

Kaede gasped for air as it started to feel like her body was being crushed by some invisible force. She looked at herself and realized that all of the water that she had been drenched with earlier was solidifying into stone. Her arms, legs, and torso were all immobilized by the marble-like rock, only leaving her head free.

The Mizukage moved above the woman by hoisting himself up, using her body as a sort-of mid-air platform. He gave her a military style salute as he kicked her body downwards, saying, "This is goodbye, woman."

Kaede spiraled towards the street, encased in stone and unable to talk or even scream because of how constricted her lungs were. She could only watch as the Kage's sneering face grew smaller and smaller in the distance.

Naruto, who was still immobile, watched as Kaede's body flew off of the building. From the angle that he was laying at, he couldn't see how she had been knocked off of the roof, or even who did it, but one thing was still clear. She was about to splatter onto the street if he didn't do something. 'She's really going to die.' he thought to himself. 'I have to move, I've got to save her.' Naruto willed himself to stand up, but his body wasn't responding. He felt like his brain had been disconnected from his body somehow. 'Shit!' he cursed at himself. 'Shit! Am I just going to sit here, and watch her die! Do something, Naruto!' "Do something, Naruto!" The second time, Naruto actually managed to say something. However, before he could contemplate what this meant, a second piece of rubble fell off of the building above him, and slammed into his face. Naruto was knocked out instantly by the impact.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

"Owie." Naruto said, gingerly rubbing the bruise on his forehead where the rock had hit him. "Wait a minute..." He started. "I can move!" Naruto did a handspring, easily jumping to his feet.

Naruto turned his head, taking in every inch of the dark, dank hallway that he had somehow found himself in. "Where's Zabuza?" he asked. "And Haku, those brothers, and that woman? Where did everybody go?" He scratched his head. "When did I get in here?" Naruto looked around the hallway some more. As far as he could tell, he was in what appeared to be dark, moist dungeon with thousands of small cells lining the walls for miles in every direction. "How do I get out of here?" Naruto wondered, but a low rumbling to his left provided him with what appeared to be an answer to that question. Naruto started to walk in the direction of that noise.

Naruto slowly paced through the hallway, his feet splashing in the inch-high green water that filled this place. He came to a fork in the hallway, with paths leading to his right and straight. He decided, after much debate, to take the right path, when he heard the noise coming from that direction.

After what felt like an eternity of walking, Naruto stumbled upon a particularly enormous cage. He smelled that a rank scent was coming from the cage, signifying that something was in there that was either dying, or already dead. Naruto started to approach the cage, which was so dark inside that he couldn't see a thing, when he saw a large amount of motion within. The enormous tail of some animal crashed into the bars, startling Naruto and causing him to jump backwards. The ground started to rumble when the tail made contact with the bars.

"There's something in there." Naruto said to himself. He watched the furry, brown tails of the beast for several more minutes, and began to get used to the darkness in the cage. The animal had four legs, like a dog, but the shape of its ears meant that it was more similar to a fox. The fox was facing away from Naruto, and there was a scraping noise coming from the wall at the back of the cage. Naruto leaned his body so that he could see what the animal was doing, and realized that it was raking its nails against a large seal on the wall in front of it. Naruto realized that the seal was exactly the same as the one on his stomach. "What do you think you are doing with my seal, bastard!"

The Fox turned his head around, his enormous eyes observing the intruder in his dungeon. **"What does it look like, human? I am making my escape."** The fox tapped its claw against the seal in front of him. **"I'm going to claw right through this seal! Just look at it, in only ten years I've already made so much progress!"**

Naruto squinted, trying to see where the Fox had made so much progress. He looked at the seal, which looked completely undamaged, composed of thick, black lines that didn't even look as if they had been clawed at. "You haven't done anything to the seal! It's still perfect!"

The fox laughed heartily, **"Perfect it says. What a stupid creature."** He pointed at the upper right corner of the seal with his nose. **"Look right here, kit, at this thinning line."** Sure enough, a small portion of the seal looked a little bit thinner than the rest. **"I'll be out of here in no time!"**

"You, baka!" Naruto said. "At the rate you're going, you won't be done for one hundred years! I'll be dead by then!"

The fox stopped clawing the seal, and its head drooped a little. **"I know that,"** It turned around so that it was facing Naruto. **"but clawing the seal gives me something to do. You wouldn't believe how unbelievably boring it is in here, kit. Just the thought that I'm never going to leave this place again is too much for me, so I try to keep my mind focused on other things." **The giant fox sighed. **"I'd give anything to feel the taste of human flesh on my tongue again."**

"Why are you in here anyway?" Naruto asked.

"**I don't know. I was just eating dinner when those damn humans turned on me." **The Fox said angrily. **"I had been nice enough that I limited myself to only eating every thirty years, but those humans just don't understand how the food chain is supposed to work. Animals eat plants, Humans eat animals, Demons eat humans. It's so simple, but the humans just have to screw things up, don't they? I should have eaten all of them, before that damn animal got the chance to summon that Shikigami."**

Naruto scratched his head as the fox continued to talk. A thought forced its way into his head as he listened to the fox's rant. "Wait a minute, you're the Kyubi aren't you?"

"**You know about me, kit?"**

"Yeah. Zabuza mentioned you once or twice. He said that you are supposed to be some kind of demon. You attacked villages in Fire Country for hundreds of years, but when I was born, Konoha's Hokage defeated you and sealed you into my stomach using some sort of Forbidden Jutsu."

"**Well, that's one way to put what happened." **The fox muttered.** "However, I have always thought of it more as a tie than an outright victory for him." **'He did end up being sealed as well, after all.' The Kyubi cleared its throat. **"Why have you entered my domain, human?"**

Naruto got into the thinking pose, 'Why did I come here? I remember being hit by something, hard, but what was I doing before that?' A light bulb flashed in his head. "Damn, I almost forgot!"

"**What is it?"**

"I've got to save that woman, before she dies! But I can't move my body outside of here, because I don't have any chakra left..." Naruto brainstormed for a couple of seconds. "I figured it out!" He said as his brainstorm produced fruit. "I remember Zabuza saying that you demons were made of chakra..." Naruto pointed his finger at the Kyubi. "Give me all of your chakra now, you damn fox!"

The Kyubi growled at him, **"What did you say to me, human?"**

"You heard me, you fox-bastard!" Naruto answered. "I want every last ounce of your chakra, now! You're stuck here, and by the time you get the seal open, we'll both already be dead. Face it, you're never going to need that chakra of yours again. It would be a waste for you not to give it to me."

"**No dice, kit!" **The Kyubi roared. **"Even if I no longer have any use for my chakra, there is no way in hell I'm going to give it to a tiny, insignificant, runt like you!"**

"But I need your chakra." Naruto pleaded. "I've got chakra depletion. If I don't get some extra chakra, then that woman's going to die, doesn't that matter to you?"

"**Of course it matters to me. Every time you experience a negative emotion; like sadness, pain, or anger, the stench in here gets worse, the lights darken, and it gets even damper. Frankly, I don't want to see what would become of this place if you lose an important ally. But the fact stands, that even if I gave you all the chakra in the world, there's no way that you can save anyone with your current level of power."**

"What are you trying to say?" Naruto said.

"**Have you ever heard of the phrase, 'It's not how much chakra you have, it's how you use it'?"**

"Of course not. You just made that up, didn't you?"

"**That phrase means that even if a genin has more chakra than a Kage, he's still a genin. The Mizukage could still rip you to pieces, even if I fed you chakra until I died. Do you understand, human?"**

Naruto scratched his head, "I guess so." Something clicked as he said that. "Wait a minute, you know what's going on outside of here?"

The Kyubi cleared its throat, avoiding the question. "**Let's make a little deal, kit." **It started. **"I didn't get my nine tails by sitting on my ass and growing them. I had to earn these tails, by beating down the other demons to gain my rank. We each started out with five tails, but each time we battled one another, the balance of power shifted towards the winner. For a small price, I can show you the unstoppable technique that earned me my tails. Something that no normal ninja can match, not even the Mizukage. I'm sure that you'll find it useful."**

"A move that strong exists?" Naruto asked.

"**It's not just a normal move, human. It's an attack that only I, the Nine-tailed Demon Fox can utilize! And also you, of course, since I'm inhabiting your body. "**

"Oh. Then teach me this move of yours." Naruto said.

"**It would take months, maybe even a year to teach it to you. Even then, it might be several more years before you completely master all of its uses. For now, the best I can do is use it for you. In other words, you tell me when, and I'll slay the Kage in your stead."**

Naruto thought about this, 'That does make sense.' "Alright, let's do it!" he said.

"**Wait, kit. We haven't discussed the fee, yet."**

"What fee?" Naruto asked.

"**I'm not just going to give my power to a human without expecting something in return. There's a little something I want you to give me in exchange for helping you."**

"Well." Naruto said. "What do you want?"

"**Nothing too valuable, just a little something that you have but don't need..."**

_... Much time passes in Naruto's head as he irons out the details of this exchange with the Kyubi..._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

...Meanwhile...

Kaede was halfway on her journey to splattering onto the ground, and she finally managed to stop panicking at the prospect of dying in a few seconds. She began to contemplate how to get out of this situation. 'Come on, think. Think.' she took a short breath, the best she could do with a tight layer of stone crushing her. 'Okay. The stone's constricting my fingers so I can't do jutsus, but...' She examined her current position as best she could, while continuing to spiral towards the ground. 'My head's still free! What if I...' She tried to bite into the stone, and grinded her teeth against it. This had no effect. 'Kuso.' She thought as a piece of stone broke off, stabbing her in the gums. She spit it to the side. 'Damn it, this is taking too long.' The ground was growing painfully close at this point. 'I can't die this way. I had so much more to do, so much to tell...' A lightbulb appeared over her head as she had a brilliant thought. 'Wait a minute, didn't I train for this?'

_Flashback to nineteen years ago, where an Academy Teacher in Kirigakure's Ninja Academy was teaching a crowd of students at the edge of a tall building, near the gates at the front of the village. At the front of the crowd of students were Momoichi Zabuza and Shimizu Kaede._

"_Alright, Cadets!" The Teacher started. "Today we are all going to start on a brand-new technique!"_

"_Are we going to learn how to teleport?" One nameless student from the back asked._

"_Or how to fly?" Another one said._

"_No!" The Teacher said angrily. "And keep your damn mouths shut until I finish speaking. Now where was I?" He thought about it for a second. "Oh that's right! Now we have already finished with the Ninja Sprint, and we've learned how to improve our jumping heights using chakra. So it's time to start on some aerial techniques." _

"_Why would we need to know that?" A young Zabuza asked. _

"_Don't think that just because of that little performance you put on last year," 'Honestly, he thinks that just because he killed a bunch of children that he's important now.' "That I will forgive your constant questioning. Aerial combat techniques are important because the air is by far the most dangerous place to end up in during a fight. You can't dodge projectiles, and you can't adjust your position to avoid explosives left on the ground. At worst, you'll run into a taijutsu user that will take advantage by knocking you into the air before a finishing move. That's why we are all going to practice the three halves to proper, aerial fighting today. Aerial Taijutsu, Aerial Recovery, and finally, landing from a great height. Zabuza, since you are so doubtful of me, why don't you start us off with the last one. Jump off of this building and land in the cat stance. Make sure you don't break anything, because no medic-nin's are on duty right now."_

"_I would," Zabuza started "but she said that she wants to go first." He gestured towards the girl standing next to him._

"_No, I didn't." A young Kaede protested, before she was shoved by Zabuza off of the roof, falling upside down towards the ground._

_The Teacher watched her fall, "Since you're upside down, the cat stance isn't going to work!"_

"_WHAT!" The girl screamed, rapidly approaching the ground._

"_Use your shoulder! Spin your body and absorb the impact shoulder first!"_

"That's right! I could do that!" Kaede remembered. She forced her body to start spinning by gently leaning her shoulder downwards. Maintaining her balance, she allowed herself to spin faster and faster until it became difficult to see. To anyone looking on, she looked like a red, (On account of the color of Kiri's Vests), spinning top, the colors on her clothes becoming blurs in the air.

When she finally reached the ground, all of that spinning paid off. Instead of simply smacking into the ground, she ended up bouncing off of it, the stone that she had been imprisoned in shattering off on impact. She tumbled through the air, using one final spin to position herself to land on all fours. Pain shot through her left arm and leg when she finished sliding across the ground, the inertia from the spinning moving her across it. 'Damn, I broke them both.' She forced herself to her feet, while holding her broken arm and favoring her broken leg.

She heard a noise to her left, that slowly grew louder and louder as time passed, so she turned that way and looked.

There was nothing there.

Kaede sighed once she was sure that she had just been imagining it and started to limp the other away, towards Zabuza and the others.

"Surprise!"

Just as Kaede looked up, her face was greeted with a fist. She was sent flying through the air, and it took all she had in her to take a look at the person who hit her. It was Hito, who had apparently walked over to her while she was pulling that spin in the air. 'Damn' Kaede thought, 'I knew I'd forget something."

_The Teacher watched on as a young Kaede dragged herself off of the ground after her landing. "Well, I must say... That was one of the best landings I've ever seen. However, make sure that you roll all of the way onto your feet, in fighting stance, after the roll. It doesn't matter how much of the impact you divert during the landing if you leave yourself open when you do it. Any decent ninja will take advantage if their enemy ends up that high in the air and doesn't check their blindspots."_

"I don't know what to say." Hito said in present day. "I never thought that you were going to survive the fall. That trick you did was really something..." He started to dig through the pockets of his jacket, obviously searching for something. "Sadly, the Kage has left it up to me to finish you off. No hard feelings, all right?" A smile appeared on his face as he found what he was looking for. He pulled out what appeared to be some fishing line and some fishing hooks.

Kaede somehow managed to get back on her feet, holding a single kunai in her good arm. "What are those hooks for? There's no fish here."

Hito laughed. "Well, seeing as how no one else is left and you're injured, it would be pointless for me to just outright kill you. This is the perfect time for me to practice all of those jutsus I've been working on." He started to twist the fishing line through his fingers, stretching it out so that the line zig-zagged from finger to finger, with the fishing hooks hanging from it at various places. "Let's see you avoid the "Cat's Cradle" with a broken leg."

Kaede's eyes widened. 'He knows that technique?'

_... 3 minutes later..._

Kaede was completely wrapped in wires and fish hooks at this point, the lines hooked into the ground in a circle around her. To make matters worst, the fish hooks that were hanging from the lines weren't just for show. Painful can't even begin to describe what it's like to have fish hooks literally anchored into your body.

Hito stretched out the fishing lines between his fingers and bit it, allowing him to pull his fingers free of it. He allowed it to drop to the ground, leaving his enemy in a horrificly bad situation. He started to do handseals, "I think that we've done enough playing for now."

Kaede struggled against the line, but that only caused it to wrap tighter around her. "Go to hell."

Hito inhaled deeply once his handseals were finished, and his torso expanded greatly, signifying that this was a large-scale attack. "Water Drill Jutsu!" He spit out a high-speed blast of water which was twisting rapidly, like a drill.

As the attack approached Kaede, she realized that the ground under it was having spiral-shaped grooves carved into it, meaning this wasn't just a plain-old blast of water. 'If that hits me... I'll be ripped apart!' Realizing that this situation was, somehow, even worse than being encased in a block of stone and knocked off of a building, she closed her eyes and prayed that she wouldn't be ripped into a hundred pieces in a few seconds.

_... Elsewhere..._

Naruto's experience with the Kyubi was finally over and his deal was made, so his short time in the land of the unconscious ended at this point. His eyes shot open, and he was able to observe the real world, outside of the Kyubi's den, for the first time in nearly five minutes. However, something was different about the world this time around. The sky, normally blue, appeared to be a light shade of orange, and everything else in the world had a slight reddish tint to it.

Naruto stood up from the ground and looked at his left arm, and quickly realized what the problem was. 'The Kyubi's chakra is actually visible to the naked eye.' he thought. Right before Naruto got a chance to analyze himself any further, he sensed a great deal of motion to his left. He looked over there and saw that an enormous, spinning wave of water was quickly approaching one of his teammates...

...Kaede cringed as a wave of water hit her face. 'So this is how it ends...' Kaede stood there, eyes closed, awaiting her demise. However, she soon realized that nothing was happening. "The water has stopped." she muttered. She opened one eye, and saw something she really didn't expect.

Between her and Hito, was a boy with golden hair, who was bathed in a red aura. The water blast that was supposed to be the end of Kaede had been thwarted by his sword, split in half so that it ripped the ground apart in a v-shape at his sides, instead of extending behind him to where his ally was.

Still holding his sword with only his right hand, even after the water that he had stopped was already a harmless puddle on the ground, Naruto started to turn backwards towards the person that he saved. "Looks like I got here just in time, eh?" When his body had finally rotated enough for Naruto to see who was talking to, he shuddered at the sight. The female anbu that would be dead if he wasn't for him, was caught in what was certainly one of the most horrible jutsus he had ever seen.

She was tied up from head to toe in razor-thin wires, that kept her utterly immobile. The lines kept her arms pulled behing her back, with her knees held so that they were slightly bent. The amount of wire used here was simply ridiculous. To make matters worst, the wires weren't wrapped in a way that kept them held in place. An array of fishing hooks, that were hanging off of the wires at random intervals, were literally anchoring the wire in place, causing thin streams of blood to run down their victim's body where they were piercing into her skin. A pool of blood at Kaede's feet showed just how dangerous this technique actually was.

'Using a technique like this, is that guy a sadist?' Naruto thought. He aimed his sword at Kaede. "Don't worry woman, I'll cut you free!" he declared.

"Na...ru...to" Kaede struggled out, despite one particularly annoying hook that was wrapped around her neck. "Don't... worry about me. I'm... fine. Keep your eyes... on your... opponent."

Naruto turned around, seeing that Hito was twisting the fishing line between his fingers again.

"That's right, _Naruto." _He started, mocking Kaede. "You should keep your eyes on me if you want to survive for longer than a minute. Never mind that woman behind you." He slowly rose his fingers in front of his face, so Naruto could see what he was doing. He stretched the fishing line that he was holding out, so that it was now a series of straight lines zig-zagging from finger to finger.

Naruto eyed the fishing line curiously, 'That wire's just like the stuff he wrapped that woman in. The ends of it are extending out of his hands and is submerged in the ground.' He followed where the wire led to with his eyes. 'Is he going to try and capture me with it like he did with her?' Naruto watched Hito's movements carefully, ready to dodge an attack if any signs of one appeared.

"That's right, Naruto, follow the birdie..." Hito whispered to himself. He made a wide motion with his hands, ripping the wire through the ground.

The lines exploded through the earth, whipping up chunks of rocks as they rapidly made their way towards Naruto. Naruto took up a defensive stance with his blade held in front of him, however, just before the attack met with Naruto the wires went limp.

Naruto heard a blood-curdling scream from behind him, and turned around, only to see a bloody mess where Kaede had been standing. "He attacked her instead of me!" he realized. He had turned just in time to see her topple to the ground, covered in deep, bleeding gashes that must have been made by Hito's attack. He saw the fishing line be pulled into holes in the ground in a circle around the woman, the hooks at the ends of it leaving a trail of blood in a spiral around her. 'Shit! I should have been keeping an eye on her.' He thought. 'I let Hito distract me and he cut her to ribbons. I let her die.'

It was at this point that Kaede coughed, and blood sprayed from her mouth. Blood was beginning to pool around her, and her eyes were starting to dilate.

'Wait a minute... dead people can't cough, which means that she's still not dead!' Naruto realized. 'If I get over there, she still might have a chance of surviving.' He ran towards her, yelling, "Hold on! Don't die yet!"

Just as he was drawing near Kaede, Naruto felt the ground shudder and a wall of water burst out of the ground in front of him. He started to jump backwards, but a second wall rose behind him, cutting him off. Two more appeared at his sides, boxing him in. Naruto moved one of his hands near one of the four walls, testing if they were solid, and the skin was almost pulled off of his fingers by the speed at which the water was moving. 'Shit! I'm trapped.' he thought. Smug laughter began to fill Naruto's ears as the performer of this jutsu made his presense known again.

"This is what you call, killing two birds with one stone." Hito said, now that Naruto was firmly in the middle of his trap. "I knew that you'd be too stupid to figure out that I left your friend alive on purpose. You just ran right over to her and got caught in my Water Cage Jutsu as soon as her life was threatened. Now I can kill the two of you at my leisure."

Naruto observed the wall of water that was around him, and a glint of light that reflected off of an object hidden in one of the walls caught his eyes. As he studied it closer, he realized that there was more than one object hidden behind the waterfalls around him, and that they appeared to be slowly approaching him. 'What are those?'

Hito laughed. "You know what, kid! I've just decided that a normal death is much too good for you! A stupid bastard like you should be fish food!" He moved his hands together to start a seal string. "I'm going to send you to meet a friend of mine, in Paradise!"

Naruto was still staring at the shiny objects in the water cage, when he finally realized what they were. 'Oh no.' He looked back over at Kaede, who was still lying motionless in a pool of her own blood. 'I'm surrounded in fishing hooks, which means he's going to use that jutsu again. If I don't block it, I'm going to end up looking like her!' Naruto drew his sword as the water cage began to grow smaller and smaller, and swung it into the closest wall. It bounced off, sending Naruto reeling so that he stumbled backwards into another wall. It tore through his back, sending blood flying into the air, and then all four walls of water dispersed allowing the wires that formed Hito's "Cat's Cradle" to whip around Naruto and capture him. As the hooks dug into Naruto's body, and the wire pulled so tightly around him that he couldn't breathe, Naruto felt a dreadful emotion overtake him. 'This... could... kill... me!' he realized.

Naruto felt blood begin to drip out of his shoulders, legs, and head, where the hooks were firmly anchored into place. He looked around, desperate for a way out of this attack, and his eyes centered on Hito, who had both eyes closed, and had began chanting something under his breathe.

"_The Ultimate Power of Sanbi: Tengoku._"

"Eh?" Naruto uttered, despite a particularly annoying wire that was wrapped around his neck. However, he got little time to be confused, as he immediately noticed a series of blue runes that were appearing on the ground in a circle around him. Mounds of water rose out of each seal, stretching into the air around Naruto until they were shaped more like tendrils than anything else. Naruto tried to wriggle his way out of the wires, but they pulled even tighter around him, nearly cutting off his circulation. Then came the tendrils...

Out of each of twelve runes, a tentacle was formed, and each and every one of these tentacles wrapped themselves around Naruto, squeezing even more of his life out of him. Naruto felt the world grow blurry and out of focus, and a pool of water slowly appeared at his feet. The tentacles began to drag him downwards towards it, and before long, he found himself completely submerged in water, darkness surrounding him in all directions.

The tentacles disappeared at this time, leaving Naruto so deep in water that he could barely see through the surface. Naruto looked upwards and saw that the buildings that surrounded him a few seconds ago were all gone, nothing that even resembled Kirigakure in sight. "This isn't possible." He said to no one in particular. "How did Hito manage to teleport me away from the village? Did he do it with that technique he used?"

Naruto heard a loud rumble in front of him, and looked in that direction, only to see thousands of eyes staring back at him. A massive fish was rapidly approaching him, and it was something that someone in Naruto's position certainly didn't need to see. It looked like a fifty foot tall shark, with three dorsal fins and three tails, that was covered in so many tendrils that only its mouth was visible from beneath them. All other aspects of its body were left to the imagination.

Naruto tried to swim away, but found that he was unable to move. He looked at himself and saw nothing that should prevent him from doing so, despite feeling like he was still tied up with wires.

"**Hello child."** The massive monster bellowed once it was close enough to, the voice of some enormous women coming from her monsterous, fang-filled mouth.

"What the hell?" Naruto said. He observed as bubbles came out of his mouth, along with his voice. "How did I get underwater? And why am I still unable to move if those wires are gone?" He asked the shark-like beast.

"**Why, that's all because you are now in my world, Tengoku. Hito sent you here, just as he did with that woman a few minutes ago. I hope that you will be palatable unlike her."**

"You are going to eat me?" Naruto asked

"**Of course. Why else would Hito send you here? When the Mizukage put the key to the doors of my world in his left eye, it became Hito's responsibility to keep me well fed. You are the first appetizer he's sent my way in months." **The monster opened her enormous mouth, forming a whirlpool as she rapidly intook water.

Naruto himself didn't appear to be moving towards it, just all of the water around him. For some reason, he felt locked in place, out of the monster's reach even.

The monster closed her mouth again. **"Ugh. Why does Hito keep doing this? One more time and he'll be the next soul I devour. I can't eat things that are tied down, which means that I have to digest you externally." **She sighed.** "Oh well." **The monster's tentacles broke away from her body and started to drift towards Naruto.

One brushed against his leg, cutting a deep gash into it. "God damnit!" Naruto howled as more and more of the tentacles drifted towards him, scarring him badly. "This pain! Stop it, please!"

"**Sorry, human, but this is the way things must be." **The shark said. **"If I don't eat you, then there is no telling how long it will be before Hito sends me another meal. Starving to death is not a suitable way for a demon to fall."**

Naruto continued to cry out, as the pain continued, but a third voice, not his or the sharks, helped him to get a grip on himself. He heard it speaking to him quietly at first, trying to reach him through the depths of his own mind, but it slowly grew louder and louder until it filled his ears, blocking out all other sound.

"**What are you doing, kit? If you let this continue, the Sanbi is going to eat you!"**

"Kyubi?" Naruto said, listening as the voice continuing talking to him.

"**Come on, kit! If you can't break free with your own powers, than why haven't you asked me for mine? It's the only way for you to escape!"**

"But I don't have my sword with me, Kyuubi. You said that without a blade, your attack is useless." Naruto said.

"**What are you talking about? Your sword is still in your right hand. Even Sanbi's illusions can't change that."**

Naruto's eyes opened wide. "An illusion?"

"**The Sanbi's the legendary three-tailed illusionary demon. It can only exist in illusions, and genjutsu is the only way that it can attack. However, once its victim is caught in its "paradise", there is absolutely no escape. The only way to get out of here is to force the Sanbi to release you. To do that, all you have to do is use your sword and summon my powers."**

'If this is an illusion like the Kyubi says, then I won't be able to close my right hand, because of the sword I would be holding in it.' Naruto tried to close it, and sure enough it was impossible. 'Then if I grab the sword with my other hand.' Naruto gripped his blade, and immediately felt the Kyubi's power flowing through him at full force, sending a wave of power out of his body. "This _ is_ only an illusion!" he realized.

The Sanbi's thousand eyes grew angry as the tentacles that she was sending at Naruto began to be repelled by some invisible force. **"What are you trying to do, human?"**

Naruto smirked as he heard several popping noises, the wires that were wrapped around him exploding off, ripped apart by the Kyubi's chakra. "Now I'm free."

"**Not for long, human! Without those pesky wires in the way, I am going to devour you whole!"** The Sanbi rushed towards him as fast as she could, opening her mouth as wide as it could go.

Naruto pointed his sword towards the massive fish-demon, and his blade was engulfed in some sort of black fire. "Let's go, Kyubi!"

"**Alright, kit! I'll be taking control of your left arm now, and together we will perform my signature move. The Kyubi's Roar!"**

The Sanbi made her way to Naruto, and closed her massive jaws around Naruto's small form, but before she even got a chance to swallow, Naruto's sword emerged from her face, piercing the demon through the roof of her mouth.

The Sanbi roared as black fire erupted from the wound that Naruto made, searing the flesh from her face. She spit Naruto out, but even after his sword left her mouth, the pain didn't end. The very color of her skin started to melt away around the wound, leaving the front of the Sanbi's face black and white, devoid of the blue that it was recently composed of. **"You are no ordinary human!"** She bellowed to Naruto. **"This attack is exactly like the Kyubi's! My very soul has been damaged by your sword! I fear that if I keep you here, it will be the end of me. Take your leave, child!"** The Sanbi swam away from Naruto, releasing him from her illusion.

Naruto closed his eyes and then opened them again, and found himself in Kirigakure once again, the Sanbi no where sight, and Hito's cats cradle lied broken, in pieces at his feet. He saw that Hito was exactly where he was before, except that he was standing now, and he looked absolutely pissed.

"You... just... escaped... Sanbi's Paradise. How the hell, could anyone, escape Sanbi's Paradise!" Hito's face was pulled into an expression of absolute hate and disdain for whatever he concentrating on. "I'm going to rip you into itty... bitty... little pieces with my bare hands, and scatter you into the wind!" He rushed towards Naruto at full sprint, unarmed, with every intention of causing the blond-haired kid unimaginable bodily harm.

"Oh yeah! Bring it on!" Naruto yelled back, he matched Hito's assault, running in the opposite direction directly towards Hito, his sword pointed at him.

The two clashed, and the end result was Hito launching a wild punch at Naruto's jaw, and Naruto stabbing his sword into Hito's stomach. Hito's punch sent Naruto flying, but the sword remained embedded in his chest, so he ripped it out and threw it to the side. "This sword of yours doesn't even itch." he said as the hole in his stomach began to heal. "I'm going to enjoy ripping you to pieces."

Naruto hit the ground hard, his head hurting horribly from Hito's punch. 'Even with Kyubi giving me extra chakra, his punches still hurt like hell.'

Hito walked over, cracking his fists. "I'm going to grind you to dust." He said.

Naruto looked at Hito and started to laugh. "Looks like I got you." A diagonal line was starting to reveal itself in Hito's chest, and blood began to stream out of it.

"Huh?" Hito said. Suddenly, he felt pain shoot through his body, stemming from the diagonal line, not the point where the sword stabbed him. "What the hell?" he muttered, dropping onto one knee. 'What's wrong with me? That kid's little toothpick can't possible be the cause of this pain.' He thought. It was at this point that black fire began to engulf his wound, ripping all of the strength from his body, and causing him to fall to the ground.

"That's what you get." Naruto started. "Being so confident in your regenerative power that you would willingly take a blow from an opponent's sword. But I knew you'd do that and took advantage." He revealed that he was concealing a kunai, that he had been holding in his left hand.

"Can't... move." Hito muttered. A glazed look took over his eyes, as blood began to pool under him at a very fast rate. The flames had spread from his wound and were beginning to engulf more and more of his body. "Damn I hate... fire."

By this point, Naruto was standing on his feet, brandishing the kunai like a trophy as he made his way over to Hito, "You see, bastard. I learned a new move while I was asleep."

"New... move?"

"That's right, my new sensei, the Kyuubi no Yuki, taught it to me. I still don't understand exactly how it works, but he says that it's about as strong as moves get. Basically, I hit you with his chakra and he handles it from there. That fire that's covering your body means that it's working."

"But... what... did... you... do?" Hito mumbled, still lying face down in the ground.

Naruto formed his thinking pose. "Oh that..." He thought about it for a while, and then shrugged. "I'm not exactly sure, so I'll put it into the Kyubi's words. He says that I severed your lifeforce itself from your body, by exposing it to a blast made up of his chakra. Then I damaged your lifespan by cutting it apart using a bladed weapon. Just forming the attack causes the weapon used for it to glow with black chakra, so I had to use an alternate version so that you wouldn't see it coming. If I had used my sword, your life as a ninja would be over, and your lifespan would have been cut in half. But I knew that you would notice it if my sword was glowing when I rushed you with it, so I used my kunai instead." Naruto made a slicing motion with the kunai. "I snuck in the kunai slash right _after_ I sunk my sword in your chest. All that did was cut a few years off of your life and reduce the amount of chakra in your body to nil but that doesn't mean that I can't finish the job now." He started to look around. "As soon as I figure out where the hell you threw my sword."

"Heh heh heh" Hito made a sound that sounded similar to a laugh but much weaker. "Behind you."

Naruto turned in the direction that Hito indicated, only to find that his sword was in the hands of someone else.

"Looking for something, Naruto-kun." the person said, stretching his hand out towards Naruto with the sword in it.

Naruto looked upwards, and surprise was etched on his face as he realized who he was looking at. "The Mizukage? Do I have to beat you down next?" Naruto didn't even see the Kage's hand move, but he felt it. The blow was unbelievably quick, hard, and painful, striking Naruto directly in the forehead. He fell unconscious the instant that the punch made contact.

The Mizukage stood over Naruto's unconscious body, the boy's sword still in his hand. "Learning an unstoppable move in his sleep, and then beating my strongest underling and the Sanbi no Isonade using it. I certainly didn't expect Naruto to perform more exceptionly than even Zabuza today." he said. The Mizukage turned towards Hito, who had begun to crawl towards him, black fire still burning all over him. The Mizukage pulled out a scroll and did a few handseals, "Black Fire Sealing Technique!" and captured the fire in the scroll.

"That kid, he's stronger than he looks." Hito muttered to the Kage, finally free of the flames. "Him and Haku. Will we be taking them both?"

"You know, Hitode, they say that great minds think alike." The Mizukage said, smiling. "Of course we will be taking them both. Naruto has finally become useful to me. It would be a crime not to make use of his new powers. Both Naruto and Haku will be my loyal servants from now on, as Zabuza once was. At least, they will be as soon as I kill off all of their other allies. Speaking of which," The Kage drew Naruto's sword from its sheath, and held it in front of his face horizontally, staring at its blade intently. "Wouldn't it be ironic if every member of Naruto's current "family" was slain by his own sword?"

"Very ironic." Hito answered.

"But it wouldn't do to use it in its current form. I better reveal its true self first." The Mizukage continued. He whispered some gibberish to the blade before uttering a simple phrase to it, _"Release Yourself"_. The blade morphed, changing greatly in appearance before the Kage moved it to his right hand and begun slowly marching towards Zabuza. "Momochi-san will be the first to go." He said, raising Naruto's blade high over his head, pointing it at the heavens. As if in response to the Mizukage's gesture, and the current situation, a white blanket of snow began to pour out of the sky. "Bye, Zabuza-kun."

Hito smirked from his position on the ground. "Don't build it up so much, just kill him."

"Patience, Hito." The Mizukage said, turning around to face his underling. "Things like this are best done carefully. It wouldn't do if I got Zabuza's blood all over my robes."

Hito laughed at him. "Why would blood matter to someone like you? Just look at your hat. It still has bloodstains on it from its previous owner." His eyes shifted to the kanji on the front of the Kage's shirt. "If you ask me, you should make a bloody mess out of Zabuza just so that shirt would match your-" Hito's statement was cut short, as the sound of a spinning object ripping through muscle, skin, bone, and the Kage's shirt simeoutaneously, filled the air. He watched in horror as an ivory white javelin flew right through the Kage, sending blood flying into the air and embedding itself into the ground right next to Hito's face. "Holy Shit!" he said, observing the spear and immediately identifying that it was, in fact, made of bone. Then he looked at the Kage again and verified that he did have a hole in his chest that was produced by the aforementioned javelin.

The Mizukage fell on one knee, clutching the bloody hole that was now in his chest. "A javelin, made of bone... right through my chest..." He spit out blood. "This means... there's another Kaguya left alive." He looked at Hito, and then at himself. "In this condition we can't handle another fight. We will be... retreating, Hitode."

The Mizukage dropped Naruto's sword and ran over to his ally, before lifting him up and running away.

Three minutes passed as the unseen Kaguya remained in hiding, watching to make sure that the Kage had really left and this wasn't actually some kind of trick. She let out a sigh of relief when she was sure that the coast was clear. She stepped out of her hiding spot just inside of an abandoned building that was adjacent to the area that the unconscious bodies of Zabuza and his posse lied. She walked over to Zabuza's body and made sure that he was still okay. "It was so stressful Zabuza-sama, watching from a distance while he hurt you," she said to the man's unconscious body. "But in the end it paid off, since I ended up saving everyone. I guess that makes us even now." She finished the last statement with a giggle. "But I think I'll bring all of you somewhere safe, as an added favor."

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

I have finally come up with my own gimmick, my calling card as an author so to speak. Whenever I put a character in a situation that should kill them, but have them hang onto life by just a smidget, I'll use a "bloody cough" to signify that they are still, in fact, alive, the reasoning being that dead people don't cough. Be sure to watch out for it in future fics that I write.

If you were wondering why it took me so long to submit this baby, it was mostly because I've been spending a lot of time stressing over certain parts. I don't really like how it came out, but it was the best I could do with my current level of writing powers. The problem lies in the fact that I am horrible at drama. The story has been fine so far because these chapters have been action packed, with few emotional events, but if I ever wanted to make the story a little more serious I would need some help. That's why I've decided that I need to find a beta reader who can help me with the tough spots in my story like this one. If you're interested, then PM me about it.


	10. Chapter 10: The Consequence of Failure

Disclaimer: If I said that I was Kishimoto, and that I owned Naruto, and that I am a sexy beast, I would be telling two lies. It is up to you to figure out which two the lies are.

The Great Beansmoker has returned, humble and modest as ever! I AM the greatest writer with my user name! And I have prepared a new chapter at the urging of my readers. Every one of your reviews has motivated me somewhat, but the latest review that I got was the straw that broke the camel's back. I apologize for letting the story stagnate for so long, but I will try to get it going again. Perhaps the return of more familiar characters from Naruto will appease you? Read more to find out what I mean…

Without Uzumaki Ch. 10:

The Consequence of Failure

"Kid, I admire your spunk. But it's over."

The stench of dried-blood was heavy in the air. This place had no windows, so the group could do nothing about the smell but endure it. The unfortunate fact was that this smell was emanating from the members of Zabuza's team themselves, as they hid in a literal hole in the ground. This was Zabuza's furthest base from Kirikagure, dug especially for the (once believed) less-than-likely event that his attack would fail. The base was so far away that the likelihood of hunter-nin stumbling across it was slim. However, given the nature of the tracking jutsu available to Kiri's hunter-nin, it wasn't likely that they'd be stumbling across anyone, anyways. If those hunter-nin got even remotely close to the group's current location, they would locate them in an instant, and even with their very reduced number there would be enough hunters to take out every one of Zabuza's remaining men at once.

Zabuza's group tried their best to make as little noise as possible, since trackers would be able to find them from further away if they aimed a chakra-enhanced ear in their general direction while they were making noise. It didn't matter how quiet they were, however, since the smell would give them away if a hunter got close enough.

Naruto and Zabuza were talking in harsh whispers at the moment, their emotions magnified by how dire the situation was.

"I nearly _killed_ his number one subordinate; we can still beat him Zabuza-sensei!" Naruto's conviction could be seen clearly on his face, and his firm belief in what he was saying was conveyed even through his hushed tone. "The Mizukage is nothing! He got lucky! We had him on the ropes! Let's go back there and kick his ass!"

Zabuza chuckled quietly. "I'll admit you did a number on his punk assistant. But the fact of the matter is, we're dead if we try a second attack on that village in the condition we're in. And by the time we've recovered." Zabuza's expression hardened. "That bastard'll be back at full strength again, with a whole new army. We might as well slit our own throats if we even consider a round two. Its over." Zabuza motioned at the injured; Haku, Kaede, the Demon Brothers, they were all drained of chakra, and Kaede was riddled with gashes. "We'll wait for them to recover, and then we're running. It might suck a little since we can't go back to Kiri, but don't worry, there's a lot of work for missing-nin out there. Assassinating for hire is a real blast, I hear." Zabuza turned and moved to the only other room in the "hole". On the way he turned back, "Get some rest, Naruto, you're gonna need it."

Defeated, Naruto moved back over to his cot, and eyed the Kaguya girl that had somehow ended up in their group. Many of Zabuza's points were dead on. For one thing, it was definitely true that if this girl, who couldn't be older than Naruto, hadn't intervened, they would all be dead or in the Mizukage's clutches by now. Naruto smirked, 'She brought us all here on a bone sled, and she remembered directions that Zabuza told her only once. She might be a decent ninja, after all.' Something in Naruto made him feel that Zabuza's ragtag group could prevail over the Mizukage if given the chance, but there was the question of 'How many of us will fall the next time, with so many already dead?' Naruto sighed and sat on his bed, he decided he would catch some z's after all.

Before he slept, Naruto eyed his sword, which had undergone a complete metamorphosis since he last used it. It was blue now, and shared many features with undersea life, including a scale covered handle, slightly translucent blade, and the fact that it was now hollow. Naruto still did not understand why it transformed, but before he could consider this further, a familiar voice interrupted his thoughts.

"**Can't believe that such a loser is the one who is mentoring my host…"** Naruto heard the Kyuubi mumbling in the back of his mind. He had essentially agreed to let the beast talk to him whenever it felt like in exchange for power, a decision he was quickly regretting. **"Tell me, kit. Was Zabuza born without balls, or did the Mizukage rip them off in their fight?"**

Naruto became instantly enraged. "SHUT THE HELL UP YOU GODDAMN FOX! YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!"

Just like that, Haku snapped to life. "Damnit Naruto, could you be louder. I'm in enough pain as it is."

Naruto forgot about the fox in an instant. "Haku, you're ali-!" He caught himself mid sentence. "I mean, nice job being conscious when we needed you. Next time don't have me covering for your ass when you drop to the ground like a shitty boxer."

"If I recall correctly." Haku started. "I was knocked unconscious keeping you from getting skewered."

"Oh, yeah." Naruto mumbled. "Thanks for that. Anyways, how are you holding up, you think you will be mobile soon, cus it looks like we're going to have to start running soon."

"What?" Haku said, startled. "From who?"

Zabuza reentered the room, his eyes scowling. He whispered, "I thought I told you to stay quiet Naruto. Make any more noise and I'll be removing that noisy throat of yours."

"What's going on? Who are we running from, and why are we in hiding?" Haku spoke quietly, more from his injuries than conscious effort.

_And thusly, Naruto and Zabuza began the extremely long process of explaining the current situation to Haku…_

"Zabuza-sensei." Haku said, absorbing all of the information that he was just told. "I can see why we must go on the run as soon as we're all recovered, but there is one thing that you want to do that I can not allow." He stopped briefly, finding the right words to explain what he meant. "Zabuza-sensei, you must not give up on slaying the Mizukage. You made a vow, and you can't-"

"Can't what? Break it?" Zabuza sighed. "I just finished explaining this to that other runt. We haven't got a chance in the world. If you wanna see the Mizukage's head roll, you chop it off yourself."

Haku's eyes lowered and then rose with newfound determination. "Very well. When I recover, I will attack the Mizukage myself."

Naruto and Zabuza reacted in unison. "What?"

"Zabuza-sensei, your men sacrificed their lives for your cause, to see the Mizukage die by your hands. They all knew that you might fail, but died anyways, assuring themselves that if nothing else, you would not give up! One way or another, I will not let their sacrifice be in vain, even if it means challenging the Mizukage all by myself."

These words inspired Naruto and he stood up. "Yeah, and I'm right with you, Haku. With you their to absorb all of the Mizukage's blows for me, killing him will be no problem."

_Cue Naruto-style, long speech about the importance of never giving up, and what-not._

The strength of the boys' words amazed Zabuza, as well as their wisdom that appeared beyond their years. He stood silently once the speech was over, thinking to himself. Finally, he spoke, "Alright kids, you win. Can't let the two of you go off facing that animal by yourselves. However, this does not mean I am going to go committing suicide as soon as you all recover."

"Then when are we gonna finish the job?" Naruto said.

Zabuza smirked, although it was invisible beneath his mummy mask. "Before we do anything, we are going to need a lot of money…"

* * *

It was a few weeks later before the group was recovered enough to set out, although Shimizu Kaede was still unconscious and needed to be carried. The group first moved out of Water Country, to a village in the adjacent Land of the Waves. Zabuza got them all lodging in a hut in the trees, and it was here that they all met Gato…

"So, Zabuza-san. These are the ninja that you are offering me."

Zabuza had everyone lined up, except for Kaede, who was stored in a nearby bed room and Mao, who was watching over her. Gato analyzed each one, one-by-one. He nodded as he passed each of the Demon Brothers and Haku, but stopped once he got to Naruto.

"What is the meaning of you bringing this little runt?" Gato growled.

Naruto bared his own fangs. "Hey, Old Fart! Who you calling a 'runt'? I could kick your ass up and down this hut! And I'd be happy to do it!"

"Cool it kid." Zabuza said. He turned to Gato. "You know that I only use the highest quality of ninja. If you doubt the quality of my subordinates, why don't you give him a chance to prove himself? I'll even have him work for you, free of charge, but only once."

Gato smiled. "That's a deal that I'd be a fool to pass up…" He backed up from Naruto "Alright then, _runt_. I'll let you handle some business for me then. There's a person that I need dead, in a week. You can take one of your friends with you, just one, and handle it. If you succeed I'll let you stay here for as long as you need, but if you fail…" He chuckled. "Don't fail."

* * *

"There he is Naruto-san." It was Gozu, one of the Demon Brothers, and the person Naruto took with him. "Gato's ninja are watching, so you should deal the fatal blow."

Naruto smirked. "So that's the bridge builder who's been pissing in Gato's cereal, Kaiza." Naruto drew out his sword. "This is hardly the job for a ninja as strong as me, but I guess it's as the saying goes…" He aimed his sword at Kaiza. "A ninja's gotta do what he gotta do."

* * *

Cough, Cough Oh noes, the beans, the beans! They're… kicking… in.

_Taaaaaaaake ooooon meee! take on me! Taaaaaaaake meee oooooon! take on me! IIIIIII'll beeeeeeee gooone! Whoo whoo ooo OOo…OOOoOOoOOooOOOOoOOoooOh!_


End file.
